At the exact same time as the judge of preliminary investigations of Catania, Nunzio Sarpietro, was confirming the sequestration of the search-and-rescue ship Open Arms, Frontex was relaunching fears of terrorist attacks while introducing its new programme to secure European borders, Themis, set to begin this month. New data from the International Organization for Migration say that, while there has been a drop in arrivals, there are now 75 per cent more deaths at sea. And there are few rescue ships left, forced, as was the Aquarius recently, to negotiate the rescuing of hundreds of people with the Libyan Coast Guard. Let’s have a look at what the judge’s latest papers say and travel to Malta to understand why for many years there have been no disembarkations.
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