Coast Guard back in action in Mediterranean

The Swedish Coast Guard has deployed a crewed boat in Lampedusa, Italy for the third consecutive winter season. Together with the Swedish Police Authority, we’re working on behalf of Frontex to take part in EU-led operations to guard Europe’s external borders, prevent smuggling and save lives.

“We’ve been deployed in Lampedusa since early October. The weather in the first few weeks was windy, which caused heavy seas. The crew find patrolling to be tedious and hard work in circumstances like that. Then, when the weather turned, the migrant boats started arriving. Almost a thousand people arrived on the island in a single day. That’s the kind of thing that makes the job unique. A quiet working day can quickly become very intense,” says Peter, one of the Coast Guard’s site managers.

The Swedish crews helped 143 people ashore on Monday, 14 October, and 81 people the next day. 26 of them were spotted by a helicopter: the migrants had got themselves lost and ended up on the deserted island of Lampione, several nautical miles north-west of Lampedusa.

“The easiest way to get there and pick up the migrants was in our boat, KBV 475. We have a small boat here that can navigate shallow waters,” says Peter. “There aren’t many of us, but our strength is that we’re capable of a lot. Our crew is made up of three people in total, plus a colleague from the Guardia di Finanza who’s always on board. We’re working under the jurisdiction of another country here, we’re a resource they can rely on. We’re here to help.”

Peter is a commanding officer at the Coast Guard’s coastal station in Malmö, and this is his first deployment abroad.

“My job is to ensure that the crews get their jobs done and enjoy their work – which is exactly what I do when I’m commanding crews back home in Sweden. I operate on trust-based working hours, so I try to be on hand when the crew on the early shift leaves at 5.30 in the morning and when the second crew returns at 21.30. During the day, I buy drinking water, organise supplies for the boat, book servicing, work out staff schedules and liaise with other authorities here on site and with the International Coordination Centre in Rome. You’re more of a European citizen than a Swede when you’re here, and that’s all part of the charm,” concludes Peter.

“One thing we all have in common here is that we focus on solutions,” says Peter, who is one of the Coast Guard’s site managers on the island of Lampedusa during the winter months.

Facts about the Frontex mission

Frontex is the EU’s joint border and coastal surveillance agency, and its job is to coordinate operations at Europe’s sea, land and air borders.

Operation Italy, an operation that Sweden is participating in during the winter months of 2024–25, is a Frontex operation in the Central Mediterranean. Sweden is assisting Italian border guards on the island of Lampedusa by providing RIB KBV 475 and four crews. A total of sixteen people from the Swedish Coast Guard and the Swedish Police Authority are working in Italy on this mission. The Swedish units are led by host country Italy’s authorities and are part of operations coordinated by Frontex.

In autumn 2024, the Italian authorities on the island of Lampedusa will be reinforced by crews from Denmark and Lithuania, as well as Sweden.

The Central Mediterranean route, which includes Lampedusa, is the busiest route for migrants to the EU in 2024, despite a 64 per cent decrease in the number of migrants arriving here in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year. In total, 47,700 migrants have arrived in the EU between January and September via the central Mediterranean route. According to Frontex statistics, a total of 166,000 migrants arrived in the EU during this period this year.

A container serves as the Coast Guard’s storage and workshop on Lampedusa. Photo: The Coast Guard.