The Military Operation Eunavfor MED Irini – A Downscale of the EU’s Involvement in the Migration Crisis

Even though at a lower intensity from its 2015-2016 top, the migration crisis at the southern borders of the European Union is far from being over. But as it succeeds the military operation EUNAVFOR MED Sophia in the Mediterranean Sea, the new operation EUNAVFOR MED Irini has a very different mandate, focusing less on the migration events happening in the international waters and more on the United Nations arms embargo on Libya. Using as scientific tools the qualitative analysis of social documents and the exploratory case study, this paper argues that EUNAVFOR MED Irini, the newest military operation of the European Union, does not reflect the same level of the organisation’s commitment to address the core causes that continue to generate the flow of illegal migrants.