Vincenzo Melone

Vincenzo Melone has been General Commander of the Italian Coast Guard from 2015 to 2018. According to article 11 of Law No 189/2002 relating to the amendment of immigration and asylum laws, the Coast Guard contributes to the fight against irregular immigration, which is itself coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior. (See Italy, "The Italian Coast Guard and the IMRCC")

In parallel to the Defence initiatives, the Italian Coast Guard of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport cooperated with Operation Sophia in planning and conducting a successful training on Coast Guard Functions for the benefit of the Libyan Coast Guard and Port Security (LCGPS) and committed to support the EU Project Seahorse in training the Libyan General Administration for Coastal Security (GACS) personnel. (See Italy, "Training of the Libyan Coastguard through Operation Sophia")

In June 2017, DG Home and the Italian Coast Guard signed a grant agreement for the action entitled “Assessment of the Libyan Coast Guard legal framework and capability in terms of Search and Rescue Services”. The Grant was signed by Simon Mordue on behalf of DG Home and by General Commander Vincenzo Melone, on behalf of the Italian Coast Guard. The grant agreement led to the establishment of the Libyan Search and Rescue. The Libyan rescue zone extended to 80 nautical miles, covering about half of the way to the Italian island of Lampedusa. In this area, where most migrants had been saved and that was previously largely covered by the Italian MRCC based in Rome, the Libyan authorities were now in charge of responding to distress signals and coordinating rescue missions. Italy, and the EU at large, had thus “successfully” managed to “legitimize” their orchestration of the interception and push back of migrants by Libyan proxy, in full consciousness of the crimes against humanity committed against migrants in Libya. (See Italy, “The establishment of the Libyan Search and Rescue zone and MRCC”).

Under the EUTF program, the project “Support to the Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya First Phase”, adopted on 27 July 2017, the Italian Coast Guard, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, would support the Central Directorate for Immigration Border Police with the training of the GACS and the functional restoring of Libyan national operation rooms. The characteristics on these trainings are discussed at Chapter VII, paragraph “The establishment of the Libyan Search and Rescue zone and MRCC”. (See Italy,The projects under the EUTF program - Support to the Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya First and Second Phase and the Recovery, Stability and socio-economic development in Libya")

Until 2018, Libya never declared its search and rescue region nor established its MRCC. Therefore, the Italian MRCC, managed by the Italian Coast Guard, had de facto taken over responsibilities in that area. Search and Rescue coordination by the Italian MRCC in the would-be Libyan search and rescue region had been happening on a regular basis since the end of 2013. When Mare Nostrum stopped, vessels of Triton, Sophia, as well as NGO’s rescue vessels patrolled next to Libyan waters under the Search and Rescue coordination of the Italian MRCC.  (See Italy, "The establishment of the Libyan Search and Rescue zone and MRCC")