Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said he plans to restructure the country's maritime border forces by placing more attention on security and increasing the ministry's oversight in this area. The announcement came at a meeting of the National Committee for Public Order and Safety. He also highlighted the risk of terrorists among migrant flows, saying the goal is to "fight illegal immigration, human trafficking, and the mafia of traffickers more efficiently."

A new unified approach

Italy has seen a massive drop in migrant arrivals (105,538 in 2017 compared to 21,426 so far this year). But the interior ministry and the transport ministry (which has jurisdiction over the country's coast guard) have different approaches to sea rescues. Their differences emerged in the case of the Diciotti, the coast guard patrol boat that rescued migrants at sea and Salvini refused to let dock at an Italian port for days. 

The goal is to streamline the sea rescue process and ensure it is not hindered by fragmentation among the various forces operating at sea, which also includes navy and finance police vessels. The safety of migrants who cross the Mediterranean is not the only thing at stake, according to Salvini. 

"Possible connections between the terrorist threat and illegal immigration, despite the downward trend in illegal arrivals by sea to our country, make it necessary to reconcile the primary need for national security with search and rescue operations connected to saving human lives at sea," said Salvini.

'Phantom' arrivals increasing

A particularly concerning trend is "phantom" arrivals - those which manage to evade official controls - which has accompanied the general decrease in arrivals. The five most recent took place between October 6-8 on Lampedusa and Sardinia. In each of those, small boats carrying about a dozen migrants each departed from north African coasts and reached Italian soil by finding holes in the maritime surveillance system. Ports in Tunisia and Algeria are typical departure points. 

The Islamic State (IS) counted many young people from both of those countries among its ranks. Some of those fighters could have plans to sail for Europe with violent intentions. With that threat, Salvani felt the need to intensify surveillance at sea and to prevent people traveling in Italy who have never been identified by nor registered with law enforcement authorities. 

The Committee concluded its meeting by giving itself the task of outlining "a clear framework of procedures to follow to make sea operations more efficient, devoting particular attention to security and the prevention of and fight against criminal activity." 

A work group was created with representatives from the relevant administrative offices and tasked with "defining these operating procedures and, if necessary, taking action on measures currently in force in this area."