The NATO mission to control migrant traffickers in the eastern Aegean could begin on Friday after planning now underway at the alliance headquarters is complete, German defense ministry spokesman Michael Henjes said Wednesday.
“The NATO mission is already in the Aegean but NATO’s action with respect to this unit has not yet begun because planning is still underway…” Henjes explained.
He clarified that it would be a reconnaissance and surveillance mission monitoring international waters in the area “in the sense that no executive measures are foreseen.” “I believe that the results of this planning may possibly be presented to the NATO council tonight…,” the spokesman added.
He said the unit will operate under a German command and that the flagship “Bonn” was now at Souda Bay in Crete.
On the return of intercepted third country nationals to Turkey, Henjes noted that the use of this action unit in the Aegean was an “initiative of Germany, Turkey and Greece,” in the framework of which Turkey had expressed a willingness to take back people.
Refugees fleeing Middle East war zones and other would-be migrants have disembarked by the hundreds of thousands from Turkish territory over the past few months with a purpose of landing on Greek territory in order to continue to other European destinations.
“NATO is now working out all the legal details but it is important to repeat that this is a mission for reconnaissance and to send information to the appropriate organizations of Greece and Turkey; simply to give information.
If there is any kind of reception (of refugees) then that could only – and this is entirely hypothetical – occur in the framework of an emergency rescue at sea,” he said.
