Category: Shipping

At the beginning of August, the frigate HAMBURG left for the Mediterranean for almost five months. The crew is facing a tricky mission, which will most likely not involve any shore leave due to the coronavirus. The German Navy had previously participated in Operation Irini with a P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and carried out sixteen missions in this context. As a result of the Berlin Libya Conference in January 2020, the EU found a way to carry out a mission in the central Mediterranean at the end of March. This involves monitoring and enforcing the UN-backed arms embargo against Libya. Political agreement on the approach - the operation is seen by some as a lever against Turkish efforts to gain a foothold in Libya - proved difficult. In the end, a surveillance mission with ships, aeroplanes and satellites was agreed. In order to be able to react flexibly to the arrival of migrants, the commander of Eunavfor Med Irini can decide to position the units away from the transport routes between Libya and Italy. Overall, the operational area has been shifted further eastwards - to the eastern part of the central Mediterranean. The operation is also intended to help disrupt the business model of human trafficking networks. Irini is also intended to prevent the illegal export of oil from Libya. From the legacy of the Eunavfor Med Operation Sophia, the training of the Libyan coastguard and navy became part of the catalogue of tasks for Irini. However, this...