Operation Sophia: A Mirror of EU Political Disagreement and the Rise and Fall of EUNAVFOR MED
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The migration crisis (2013-2017) which has involved Europe was a many-sided phenomenon. Among many aspects, migration routes across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe have attracted attention and concern from the very beginning, both because of the high number of migrants who arrived using them and because of the increase in victims and activities related to illegal human trafficking. However, as envisaged by the strategic response represented by the ' European Agenda on Migration' agreed in May 2015, the EU, among its very first actions taken in this field, launched, in the second half of May 2015, the European Union Mediterranean Naval Force (EUNAVFOR MED), then renamed Operation Sophia. Recognizing the relevance to tackle the security and humanitarian threats posed by the migration in the Mediterranean waters, the military Operation was designed 'to support the detection and monitoring of migration networks', but also to fight the human smuggling or trafficking through 'boarding, search, seizure and diversion on the high seas of vessels'. This paper offers a revised and updated version of the previous one appeared in 2018 for the Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies. The study, in this new shape, aims to provide a more comprehensive analysis focusing more on the last years of activities of the Operation until its official closure on March 31, 2020. Indeed, in this period due to the reduction of migration inflow mainly as a result of the EU externalization strategy, the utility of Sophia started to decrease. At the same time, the discussions on the Operation have increasingly become a scenario of disagreement between EU states. The paper promises to give an account to the (in-) evolution followed by one of the first instrument set-up by the EU to address the "2015" migration crisis. Keywords: migration, security, European Union, EUNAVFOR MED/Sophia
DOI: 10.30958/ajms.11-2-3
Author: Gian Lorenzo Zichi
Institution: University of Cagliari
Language: English
Topic: Gender and Women's Rights
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409965909