 Hello, my name is Commander Andrea Cameron and welcome to this virtual conference about human security in the maritime environment. This conference explores the human security concept is applied to the strategic maritime environment. We have a specific focus on its implications for the roles, missions and capabilities of navies and coast guards. I am Commander Andrea Cameron, a permanent military professor at the US Naval War College. Here I teach foreign policy analysis and electives on climate change and national security. I'm also the director of the climate and human security group. It's in this role that we conceptualize the conference and many members of the group work together to establish a framework for our talks today, and identify some of the best speakers from around the world on these subjects. During this event, we seek to expand the concept of human security into the maritime environment to initiate proactive strategic thought on these issues. We have set up five panels throughout the event. We previously had panels on human security in the maritime environment and coastal zones, criminal activities in the maritime environment and illegal unreported and unregulated fishing. Next, we discuss unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery and the protection of cultural heritage. Within each topic, we ask the panels to cover a series of questions. One, what is the human security issue. Two, what does it mean for the maritime strategic environment. Three, what does it mean for navies and coast guards. And four, what are our operational policy and force options. Joining us today are scholars and members from militaries all around the world. We have representatives from over 30 different countries, primarily staying connected through the naval war college alumni program. Part of our continuing education mission is to keep learning together as a community. And we're thrilled to have such a broad audience today. The conference program can be found at the bottom of the events page. It has the agenda and the biography for all the participants. The event is being recorded and the majority of it will be available on the naval war college YouTube page after the event. And before we proceed, I have to thank my conference co organizer and a captain Jerome e leavey chair of economic geography, Dr Chris just Barrow, as well as the naval war college foundation for sponsoring the conference. It is through their generosity that today's event is made possible. And at this point, I briefly introduced my colleague, Dr Chris just Barrow for a few comments. Dr just Barrow is a formal naval officer. He's currently serving as a professor at the naval war college and as the Jerome leaving leader of geography. He is a geographer and field archaeologist with over 25 years of experience specializing in environmental security, cultural heritage protection, and African and Asian regional geography and transnational security issues. Dr just Barrow, I look forward to hearing your thoughts today. Morning, thank you Andrea, and for everybody who's on. Thank you for being here, especially those who we drag back for second day in a row and people have joined us today. I was happy when Andrea came to me with the concept and proposal for this conference because it. It fills the remit of the leavey chair and a number of ways the primary purpose of the chair is to promote understanding of the relationships between economic geography and national security and human security issues in the maritime domain are inherently both economic and geographic geographers, particularly concerned with looking at human environmental interactions, as well as the distribution of people and their activities across space and scale. In this case, economic ones. And as we've seen from our presentation so far, I think almost everyone has dealt with some type of human environmental interplay. And we've looked at problems and how they span everything from individuals and local communities up to global global processes and how these things cross space whether it's people or illicit goods or other types of trafficking. Secondly, there's a theme that many of the speakers have brought up which I think is a, is very important and that's the, the interactions between human security and national security and looking at how they reinforce each other and not necessarily separately, not necessarily separate phenomenon. And I think this is an important corrective particularly for naval thinking in the United States where we tend to take a dualistic view of security and pose opposition such as traditional non traditional irregular regular human security and national security. And this poses a threat on a number of levels. First, you know, in preparing for the big sea fight. It's important not to die a death of 1000 cuts is human insecurity erodes our social structures or economies, the legitimacy of our institutions. Also our adversaries fight across these spaces and are not making a distinction between things on the human security and and the national security and so our strategic adversaries we see exploiting human capabilities in order to gain control of the human terrain and the total and oceanic regions in attempts to either win without fighting or have a better geo strategic position if there is a fight. So, no use again preparing for the big fight if, if we lose before the shots go up. And then also as we've learned in recent terrestrial conflicts. We need to prevail a major combat operations and other things you not be able to handle the human security issues in the after aftermath which are needed to prevail long term so hopefully the type of thinking we're seeing in this conference will will help us from having to relearn that lesson someday in the maritime domain. And lastly, you know we've looked at a lot of negative, negative news and depressing topics but it's, it's a good reminder to realize that one of the reasons we're having these conversations is because many of the issues we're talking about as challenges are things that know back in the 16th century were acceptable ways for states wage warfare with through state sponsored piracy, seizing exploiting the resources of other states, dispossessing and engaging in state sponsored human trafficking to serve economies. So, in the long term, you know the fact that these challenges still exist is a problem. But on the other hand the fact that we're talking about them in a way that's different than our predecessors a few centuries ago is a, is a sign of progress. Lastly, I know everybody's probably sick of being on zoom and covered world, but pre covered, you know, we would have had to do this in person. And many of us would not be able to have attended because of reasons of time space or travel so despite the challenges of covert there are also some some opportunities and so I'm happy you're able to join us and take part in this conference. Thank you. I'm Dr. Jess Barrow. We appreciate your comments today. And yesterday I had the honor of introducing my commander rear on the Shoshana Chatfield the president of the Naval War College. But to add to my earlier bio. I'm also detailed to the office of the second undersecretary of defense for policy and stability and humanitarian affairs office as a climate and environment policy advisor. Today, I have the honor of introducing the leader in my other role, this Michelle struck as our keynote speaker. Michelle struck principal director for stability and humanitarian affairs in the office of the undersecretary of defense for policy is responsible for humanitarian assistance and disaster response policy. This includes coven 19 global response do d support to the security of us embassies, peacekeeping and stability operations, and international humanitarian law rule of law and protection of human rights. Ms struck as an expert on human rights, humanitarian affairs, and development issues in the intersection with conflict. This previously served with Oxfam America, Islamic Relief USA was an Arabic media analyst for sent com as well. She holds a master's of arts degree in international human rights law from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Ithaca College. She was also a State Department Benjamin a Gilman scholar for study abroad in Egypt. Ms struck. We are honored to have you join us today as our keynote speaker and I invite you to share your remarks with us. Thank you so much, and thank you to rear Admiral Chatfield, Commander Andrea Cameron and Professor Chris just borrow at the naval war college for putting together this very important conference. And of course, thank you to Andrea for your contributions to Shaw. Yesterday was an essential start to this conference, highlighting the overall instability in the maritime environment, criminal activities and illegal unauthorized and unrestricted fishing. Today, I am honored to be the keynote speaker for the upcoming panels on unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery and cultural heritage protection. In my position leading the Office of stability and humanitarian affairs. I oversee policy related to the areas that Andrea mentioned peacekeeping and stabilization, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, embassy security, international humanitarian policy, including the rule of law and women peace and security, cultural heritage protection and environmental security. This is a unique vantage point from which to view national security through a lens that takes into account the many underlying factors that contribute to insecurity fragility and conflict. Some see these areas as less traditional elements of national security. The concept of human security is a useful framework to help us better understand how conflict happens, how it can be prevented, and ultimately the range of foreign policy tools that we collectively have to respond. President Biden's letter issuing his interim national security guidance is clear. The US will approach national security from a position of strength, and one of our greatest strengths as a nation is our unmatched network of allies around the world. We aim to renew the strength of those alliances in the maritime environment in which the vast seas connect us to one another provide for us and sustain us international cooperation is essential. A core part of our interim national security guidance is that democracy holds the key to freedom, prosperity, peace and dignity. As we witness norms, alliances and agreements that form the bedrock of our international order being tested. We are guided by our values and our interests as we work to protect that order. Ensuring our national security by defending and nurturing the underlying strength of our values our people and our partnerships, and there are many from the world joining us today, and your partnership is one of our great strengths. The challenges that threaten our collective interests, including climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic can only be met by acting together. As we do so we focus not only on our partnerships with governments but on the ways that the American people contribute to the greater security of our world and to the people of our partner nations. I'd love to tell you a little bit more about why I find human security as a concept so useful. We focus solely on traditional external threats and physical violence. We run the risk of mistaking the symptoms for the underlying disease. The root causes underlying conflict and insecurity are complex and do not fit into the neat functional silos that we often organize ourselves around. Economic instability and poverty, food insecurity, lack of the ability to provide for a livelihood and the ability to provide for one's family, gender based violence, inequality and violations of fundamental human rights. These are some of the reasons that we hear from why people may choose to flee the places that they love and their homes, or that exacerbate and fuel conflict. Focusing on the human security concept broadens our aperture to consider the interconnectedness of these underlying reasons. It calls on us to consider human dignity, including freedom from fear, freedom from want, and how these relate to whether people feel secure enough to be stable. Human security aligns with this point from the interim national security guidance. People are secure when they have their physical security protected enjoy livelihood and have their dignity protect protected through respect for human rights. Without one of these pillars, people are not truly secure. And while we focus on national security, we see examples all around the world where groups of people lack that basic human security, which can percolate into broader national security and international security challenges. By viewing security through this lens, we see value in addressing many of the varied types of stability that we encounter that are confronted by my office. Human security concept is being used by militaries around the world to reexamine the insecurity of people, especially when people are caught up in the middle of the dire circumstances of conflict. This is incredible work and I can point to the armies peacekeeping and stability operations Institute, which published a paper on this a few months ago. These forces are considering the term human security, there are a variety of paradigms routinely used to address how to improve protection for civilians during military operations. These paradigms have included topics including civilian casualty mitigate mitigation, the protection of civilians and mass atrocity response operations, as well as cross cutting thematic topics such as children and armed conflict conflict related sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. This is important progress in how we think about security. Well, many continue to embrace human security, few have asked how people at sea or transiting across the sea can also experience human insecurity. Coastal communities and the pressures and insecurities they face on land have an important role to play in security in the maritime environment. They face food insecurity, negative impacts of climate change, destabilizing violence or threats to their families livelihoods and human rights. This can exacerbate and drive instability that plays out at sea. With so many navies around the world confronting human security issues at sea, we need conferences like this to explore these topics and our role in enhancing stability. What do we need to ask our navies and coast guards to be aware of, and how should we start planning accordingly. These are important questions to ask, and I commend the naval war college for bringing representatives from navies around the world, together with exceptional scholars to discuss these topics. Moving to today, we have two more wonderful panels in this conference and I'd like to take the opportunity to set the stage for these talks. First, I'll speak a little bit about unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery to incredibly important topics of our time. Mix migration in general refers to the people who are moving along roots for a variety of reasons. Some may be migrating for social or economic reasons, while others are fleeing political persecution or violence. This migration can also include trafficked persons and unaccompanied children, whether trafficked or not. Some migration is voluntary, while others are being forced to move. Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers may all be mixed together. They have different vulnerabilities, different legal statuses. Because the volume of people who transit along the same paths, the, the problem can be very complex for those who are called to assist them. And this type of migration can become particularly unsafe based on overcrowding and conditions once people take to sea. This is a global phenomenon. In 1990, it is estimated that more than 150 million people migrated annually. This trend has increased every year with 221 million in 2010, 248 million in 2015, and 280 million in 2020. The constant and increasing movement of people diminishes home country populations, presents dangers for them throughout the transit and challenges host countries. According to the International Organization for Migrations Missing Migrants Project, almost 45,000 migrants have died during transit since 2014. About half of them on the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Europe. In Europe, as we've all seen, is facing the largest migration since World War II. Travelling across water makes migrants even more vulnerable. Most boats are being being used are substandard and ill prepared to manage harsh sea states and are susceptible to capsize. Boats can be overcrowded to the point of exphyxying their occupants and are rarely provisioned to support the large number of passengers for the length of their journeys. These situations are not just unsafe, but can lead to unique small scale humanitarian crises, one boat at a time. And of course maritime safety issues are addressed in international legal instruments, such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. And the International Convention on Maritime Research and Rescue and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. And their implementation can help mitigate safety risks related to migration. Generally, all ships at sea are required to render assistance and rescue people in distress, so long as it not does not endanger their own ship crew or passengers. And the reason for them compounding the challenge, however, is that once people are at sea, their freedom is dependent on those in charge of the transit. Modern slavery is often called human trafficking or trafficking in persons. It refers to sex trafficking, indentured servitude and forced labor, all of which also occur at sea. The sea can be used both as a means of transit as well as the means for captivity. Conditions of people are subjected to change quickly and one can shift from being a voluntary economic migrant to being a forced laborer once offshore without any means of seeking liberty. At sea, modern slavery and forced labor are most frequently identified in the fishing industry throughout the world. Instability is sure and instability at sea, as I mentioned earlier, often interconnected, and unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery will continue to be problems at sea. During maritime operations, navies need to be keenly aware of the connections between these issues and their connection with maritime security. Next, I would love to talk about the protection of cultural heritage, an important part of my office's current work. My office serves as the coordinator of cultural heritage protection issues within the Department of Defense, as well as DoD's coordinator with other U.S. departments and agencies that have responsibilities related to the protection of cultural heritage. For example, my office leads the DoD cultural heritage protection working group. We also participate in interagency cultural heritage coordinating committee, which is led by the Department of State. And as Lucille describes, cultural heritage is the inherited we've inherited. It's comprised not only of tangible objects or monuments from the past, but also intangible aspects that are important to people, like customs, oral traditions and rituals that are passed down to us over time. It is an important part of a people's identity, and therefore, in times can become a flashpoint or a site of conflict, as people who are instigating violence use these meaningful sites and traditions to cause harm to populations that they're seeking to marginalize. Various issues can affect the protection of cultural heritage. Pollution and climate change can lead to architectural degradation. Theft of cultural property can be used to fund terrorism and organize crime, and as used to fuel illicit antiquities markets. An armed conflict can cause major damage or destruction to cultural property insights, along with potential persecution of individuals based on their cultural identification. During the campaign to defeat ISIS, Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq earned between $150 and $200 million a year, trading antiquities illegally. Interpol found that during the pandemic, cultural property related crime not only continued, but in some places actually increased. In 2020 assessing crimes against cultural property survey, Interpol found that in 2020 alone, over 800,000 cultural property objects were seized worldwide. And according to World Heritage Statistics by UNESCO, out of 1154 World Heritage Properties, 52 are currently in danger. So as the data shows, the protection of cultural heritage continues to be a major and increasing challenge. And cultural heritage is an important aspect that we, I know we'll be discussing. It focuses on human interaction with coastal and maritime environments over time, and that includes tangible objects like shipwrecks and archaeological sites, along with intention tangible components like stories and oral histories. Like with land based cultural heritage complex issues can affect the protection of maritime cultural heritage, including degradation of coastal environments by pollution and climate change. The preservation of maritime objects for sale and illicit antiquities markets and the potential for the utilization of underwater archaeology to justify excessive maritime claims. Cultural heritage can be very important to individuals and community sense of identity, a source of knowledge and skills, and as the Blue Shield Network has noted, a powerful tool on determining what is remembered, and what is forgotten or obscured over time. Cultural heritage awareness is a particular relevance for military forces, as they are often required to conduct military operations in culturally diverse environments. We need more dedicated effort in understanding all the ways we can better protect our cultural heritage on both land and at sea. As mentioned earlier, the human security concept is being considered through a variety of paradigms routinely used to address how to improve protections for civilians in ground operations. And it's, it's time now that we can think more about the maritime environment as well. So I'll conclude my thoughts on where we can be thinking more boldly. First, in the Department of Defense, we have a joint force. I challenge you not only to explore these issues in the maritime environment, but to take what you learned today and think about how within your respective defense departments, you can start to confront these issues as joint problems across domains and with your civilian government agencies. Also, in the areas of unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery and cultural heritage protection where we need to cooperate and coordinate with our allies and partners. As you will see from the speakers today, different navies around the world are gaining valuable experience, and we can learn so much from each other. Take this opportunity to expand the network of experts that you think about, and thinkers on these topics that you look to. Working together also means collaborating with other types of organizations, governments, industry, intergovernmental organizations, non governmental organizations and private groups all have a role to play. Those around the world need a more nuanced vision of what contributes to stability, and to work creatively to achieve desired outcomes. If we do not act and think about human security at sea, we leave spaces for those who will seek to exploit the vulnerability of others, and we miss opportunities to interrogate the underlying landscape that fuels insecurity and contributes to the escalation of violence that we view as traditional threats to our security. And even into the future, I challenge you to think more boldly about who else can contribute to solving these human security issues. Once again, I would love to thank you all for the great speakers and Andrea for putting this event together. Thank you to the Naval War College and to everyone from around the world who's engaged in exploring these important topics together. Thank you so much for your comments. Mr. I'd like to take the opportunity to ask you a question if I may. I'd like to ask how can focusing on maritime human security help the United States prevail against strategic competitors. One of the strengths of the United States is in our values of democracy human rights and the rule of law, and many of these programs and topics talked about at this conference on land and at sea are areas where we can share our values and work with our allies and partners. The US engagement can also build goodwill and help reduce the insecurities that competitors can exploit. Just as you mentioned, and by reducing the chances of instability and conflict, we reduce the risk of the US being inadvertently pulled into conflict with competitors. If we're not cooperating in maritime security areas, human security areas there's two missed opportunities. First we lose the chance to build on our values with our friends. This includes upholding international law and protecting people around the world. Second, we miss the opportunity to learn from others. Since many navies are dealing with these issues regularly and we understand that they have expertise it's very important to how we can collectively address them. We collaborate more and enhance our alliances and partnership and that values based global engagement is strengthened when we engage in maritime human security issues around the world as a way to ensure that together we're able to prevail against strategic competitors. Thank you so much with a fantastic answer and a fantastic talk completely appropriate for today, we really appreciate your time and you're inspiring words that you have shared with us. Thank you so much. Thank you Andrea and thank you all to the organizers and hope that today is a is a riveting discussion. We really appreciate your insights based on your background and your current role leading stability and humanitarian affairs we've been honored that you have joined us today. Thank you. Now I would like to introduce our first panel for the day and our moderator to follow up on mistrust keynote message, we launched straight into a discussion on unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery, and the moderator is me. I'm honored to moderate this panel as more and more of my own work in humanitarian and climate security seems to come back to this migration issue. To introduce our speakers, I wanted to provide some administrative guidance. All comments reflect the positions of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the US Naval War College, the Department of the Navy or the US government. Please keep your microphones muted in your cameras off. Please post your questions and comments in the chat for the question and answer period after the presentations. The geographies of all of our speakers are available in the conference program. There's a link to that in the chat. Now let's begin. Today's panel has two very distinguished speakers. To introduce Dr of themios Papa Stravidus, a researcher and part time lecture at the, as the faculty of law of University of Oxford, and Oxford Martin fellow at the Oxford Martin school since to April 2016. He was a postdoctoral researcher and teaching assistant in international law, fellow of law and fellow Athens and public international law center, national and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He was also a senior legal consultant for the UN Office on drugs and crime we saw present yesterday, and an expert legal consultant with the European border and Coast Guard agency with Frontex. He was partnered with the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs on issues of law of the sea. And he has in 2012, he was appointed director of the Center for studies of the Hague International, or kag Academy of international law. Thank you so much for joining us today. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery at sea. My name is Andrea, and many, many warm thanks to the naval war college for this very kind invitation and honorable invitation. And I have a 50 minutes, I think so Andrea just to follow up on on the very fascinating presentation and setting on the same setting that was done by our keynote speaker mistrock. The issue of positive market migration, I think it's, it's extremely important, it's going to be significant from a practical, political, operational, but also legal viewpoint. And me being a lawyer, I will try to actually highlight certain legal aspect of this, this phenomenon. The situation is very dire, and the situation is not only described as people smuggling or people, you know, crossing in legal borders, legal borders around the world, but also people missing. People found dead, people that they haven't even found that have been declared missing and the numbers are illustrative. I mean, we have, as far as cross border, illegal cross crossing, especially in the European context we have now more than in 2021 we've had more than in instrumentarianity, for example, we have more than 13,000, sorry, 13,195 of the front, this is part of me. The sedimentary has been the most, the most way routes that are on route that people are crossing through to go from Africa to the European country and see, and there are so many people they are missing right now globally, according to the National Organization for Migration we have the numbers are shocking we have right now. There are almost 4,000 people they are missing in 2021. Since 2014, we have more than 50 or almost 45,000 dead crossing, trying to cross different countries, land and especially sea. In particular, because we're focusing on the navy, the role of navies, the lost people at sea, especially in the sedimentarian, in the sedimentarian, but all the other places in South America in Asia is shocking. And the issue is that this is, as has already been said, this is a problem that is not only a search or rescue problem, it's not only rescue in lives at sea, it is multifaceted problem. The issue is that we are talking about unsafe mixed migration, we are talking about people that are living in countries for various reasons. And these boat people, if I may use this term of art, they can fall under different categories. So we always have this concept that these are either refugees or migrants, or we try to name them even before they leave their country, and to get on a boat and try to come to Europe. It is not, there's not a certain legal category that we can, we can baptize them before they actually are classified and before they, before there is actually a refugee, status determination on land. And then, shortly, these people can be refugees, and refugee in international law, there is a definition of refugees in international law in the 1951 Geneva Convention, which refugee has a very specific actually definition, they are living, they are living in a state, they are outside the borders of the state, they, and they are persecuted, they have fear of serious fear of being persecuted for certain reasons like political opinion, by a member of a particular social group, race, religion, right, and they don't want to afford the protection of the countries. These are very, very class definition of refugee of UN convention, back in 1951. Now, in addition, there can be people they call them asylum seekers, but asylum seekers that they are especially the major problem with senior refugees. The majority of people right now that we are perceiving them as refugees, they are not legally speaking refugees, and I try to clarify this. There are persons in need of mental protection. If you are living a civil war, if you're fleeing from a civil war, typically, you're not a refugee because back in 1951 the refugee convention was done for a different kind of reasons, was done after the Holocaust was done with a specific focus on the mind. However, these people do deserve and are beneficiaries of supplementary or complementary protection. In the European Union, there is a certain regulation and directives of how to afford these people complementary protection and I think also the United States and other parts of the world, there is the idea that we have statutory refugees and other people persons in need of protection. Also the same boats, we can have potential victims of criminal trafficking. People they will be trafficked to another state and they will be, you know, they will be sexually exploited, they will be exploited as domestic servants. And these people, in my humble view, they are also they could qualify as modern slaves. Now, legally speaking, slavery, it is, it's been defined back in 1926, the slavery convention. It needs a certain the euro very ownership, the element of ownership, I own someone, which apparently does not exist anymore. However, I just to, to, to, to join you, the rotation for a case, a case called money grow in 2008, 2008, it was in, in, in the Echo was court of justice, based in a community, a community of Western African states court justice, where this was a case against the Republic of Niger. There was a lady who was married at the age of 12, she had given birth to five children, her husband wanted to divorce her, and they signed, they signed a liberation certificate. And the father of the, of the woman, the husband, and the tribe. Liberation certificate of liberation, that is, you know, I don't like the word. And this is 2008, not in 19th century right so all time slavery does exist and new types of slavery do exist. And we also guess that we heard about the exploitation of human trafficking element in peace industry, right, and the people they are working for without salaries or we don't recognize or remuneration for months at sea, right. But along with the asylum seeker we have victims of human traffickers, we have people smuggled, we have also economic migrants, all these people are on the same boat, but all these people have different legal designations, and these people have different legal designations, and the protection they may afford or may not afford it if you are just an economic migrant course you can be expelled who can return to your country, the country you originally started your journey, but this must be done after a refugee status determination after there's a certain screening. One first challenge for the navies is that, you know, when you predict people see in order to be certain what is their legal designation, the proper way and what is also United Nations High Commission for refugees advances is that you get them on dry land and then the screening process of what is this the legal, you know, designation of these people and what are the, the protection that may be afford and given. Also we have smuggling of migrants and smuggling of migrants, you know, there is also debate now in the European Union context with a new pack for migration asylum. What is smuggling of minor what is also a facilitation in another country. The UN, the smuggling protocol of 2000 annexed to the 2000 UN Conventional Gestures Organized Crime, as a very specific definition for a smuggling of migrants to exist as a crime, must be, it is defined as the procurement in order to obtain directly a financial or other material benefit of the legal entry of a person to a state. So you need to have an illegal entry and the procurement financial benefit. So this is a all these people the majority of these people will be trapped will be sorry will be smuggled. However, there is a crime of criminal activity, very plain with the smuggling of migrants. On the other hand, however, the same time, there are people that they are the victims of this policy, and they are in need of protection. So the Navy's right now have first of all to actually to try to protect the borders to fight against smuggling of migrants and the same time, the same time to protect life at sea. And this becomes even more, you know, more challenging if because smuggling of migrants usually is conflated or usually practice is, is, is, is mixed with such a rescue situations. So usually the smugglers are using very unsywardly boats to travel from, let's say from, from Libya to to Italy or from Turkey to Greece or from West Africa to, to, to canary islands. So these people were needs of, you know, probably will their life will be in danger and they will be distressed situation where which calls upon the application of such a rescue as in. Now, in modern times, all this law of the sea concepts, like such a rescue that the idea of interdiction at sea where you can, for example, in your condition or in neutralizing is actually coupled with human rights and human rights protection. Which is always a good thing, right, human rights protection, however, it is very, I think, was very important challenge to me, too. And we have very recent cases in 2021, the human rights committee, the, the, the commitment and the monitoring body of the international covenant of civil and political rights, which is a universal convention and applies also to the United States but it's all over the world. So it is not only an original kind of a human rights convention. This, this is committed the issue to decisions against Italy and I guess motor with respect to the failure of both states actually Italy was was convicted for the failure of the states to to promptly respond to a distressing in the search for rescue zone of Italy and motor because there's also an overlapping these two zones. And they were Italy, Italian was close by not intervening in time that the committee finds that you know, Italian motor they are both responsible for the search for rescue zone so whatever whenever there's a distress signal in that area, you are practically obligated under the human rights law to actually do well to do whatever it's possible to save these people's lives. If you don't do this in time in a timely fashion. In that particular case there is the, the, the committee found a violation of the right life of other artists six of them. The same time however just in case in Greece, against which, that is called the pharmaconeece case, which is underpending before the European Court of Human Rights, which were actually Greek cost card rescue these people, and they were they were taking them back to, to, to often periods, however the vessel cup size details to weather conditions, and there are some people migrants were found dead were killed. So, and it is a case right now whether Greece has spent to respect and ensure this right of life. So you see here we have, you have a Navy, you are Navy's or postman Navy's and mentor Navy's. And you want to protect the borders and do your addiction, try to fight smuggling of migrants, but at the same time you have firstly to do search or rescue. And this is also Martin tradition, but now it is also, you may have also some human rights aspects, of course, and then also the human rights, especially, you know, there have been many cases where there were people were saved, or people vessels were addicted, and they were sent back to states like Libya, but they will, you know, they were serious risk of facing torture or other degrading and human treatment. And this sending back, there were international courts and tribunals that they found this as a violation of the prohibition as we call it in friends, friends, terminus is more, it's better known it's no more for more. The idea that I sent someone back in a place in a country where he or she will face persecution and other torture or other degrading human treatment. So at the same time you have to grasp many challenges, right. And especially when it comes to my region, which is Mediterranean sea and of course as I'm a real sure we will probably discuss more later on this topic. There is a flurry of, of, first of all, legal regimes applicable and a flurry of also of Navy operations, but they are there. As far as Navy operations right now, in the Mediterranean Sea, we have Frontex, which is the European border and postcard agency, there's possible agents of European Union. And there's operation, let's say them is operation Poseidon in Greece, there's a famous in Central Central Mediterranean Sea. There is a EU has a separate operation another and they're a different. Had had this cold place in Irini to fight smuggling of mines and weapons smuggling from Libya. And there's also Italy has one operation there. And, you know, there is nature is, is a commercial word to this operating in off the coast of in the DNC, very close where I'm now, nothing. So this is the multitude of Navy soldiers. And there are subject to a multitude of laws, right, it's not only the law of the sea, it's not only the UN Security Council resolution that governs the activities under the, under the EU operation in Irini. But it's also many human rights streets. And I'm, because we're talking about human security I think it's important to draw the attention and underlying this human rights treaties. The European Convention on Human Rights with 4847 member states, the National Covenant Civil and Public Rights, the, the EU Charter Department of Fundamental Rights so which is actually this Charter is applicable to EU operations and EU, these are planned EU law. There's a convention against torture. All these are actually binding states, and we have this, you know, this very, very, very interesting matrix of rules that they are, you know, they're applicable at sea. And it's, it's really difficult to. It's a very difficult role for Navy's to to uphold. On the one hand, you have to protect the borders. On the other hand, you have to protect the rule of law, which is challenging. And the challenge and I will close with this is, of course, the idea that you know, we have to have a legal basis, of course, to the people at sea, to stop the best ladder UN secret consolution, or the consent of the flag state or answer or a visual non nationality under the law of this convention. But on the other hand, you have to actually, at the same time to know that there is the right of life applicable. There is the obligation not to send someone back where he or she will pay persecution. You have to bring the person on shore in order to identify what is its legal category where it falls right now this is really it for us lawyers and academics is very interesting because it's very we can write books and articles on this but people that they are out there and you're out there it is I think it's like a letter seems like a night. I don't want to end up with a negative note, but I'm looking forward to the discussion later on, and once again for the very, very honorable and kind invitation. Thanks. Thank you so much, Dr purpose for Venus we truly appreciate how you framed up this issue of unsafe mixed migration and modern slavery, particularly your legal context and the construct and putting it so deeply into the maritime environment. So to build off of this part of the discussion I would like to introduce our second panelist, we're Admiral Stefano Russo. Admiral Russo joined the Italian Navy attending the Naval Academy from 1987 to 1991, and he graduated in naval and maritime science at Pisa University. He served on board submarines between 1992 and 2005 as navigator, operations officer, executive officer and commanding officer, taking part in several national and NATO missions in the Mediterranean, and getting relevant experience regarding the pattern of life in illegal trafficking. In his career he commanded the logistic ship brandano, the sorrow class submarine Salvatore Pelosi, and the submarine group and submarine photo. Before he was also director of the submarine training center, bringing in charge or being in charge of several international cooperation programs in the submarine branch and chief of staff of submarine command in Rome, managing submarine command and control. Currently, he is commander of standing NATO maritime group to operating in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. In addition to the decorations for an officer of his rank and seniority. He has been awarded with medals for participation in operation active endeavor against terrorist activity in the Mediterranean. Admiral Russo, we are honored to have you join with us today to talk to us about NATO operations. Thank you very much for your kind presentation. I'm very pleased and honored to talk to this qualified audience. Although in a virtual way, I followed the other presentation and with a careful interest. If you don't mind, I passed to modality slide modality in order to facilitate to follow me in my speech. The reference of the NATO agency activity are the secure strategic directive 003 and allied maritime command operational guidance number one, two and three. To start my presentation, I'd like to show you a slide with a regular migratory close in the Mediterranean. You can see two main roads from North Africa to Italy and Spain and the Eastern Mediterranean route through Turkey to Greece. Consider that when migrants arriving one of these national countries. They entering Europe in a European Union and Schengen treaty areas, where there are not barriers and controls among member states, and they are very, or they are very limited. Therefore, if they get asylum can move everywhere or as a regular, it is easier to move in. I will focus my presentation on the Eastern Mediterranean route characterized by the regular migrants coming principally from Syria and Afghanistan and consequently on NATO agency activity. Was born in February 2016 in connection with the escalation of the Syrian crisis on the request of Greece, Turkey, and it is self evident for the geographical position and Germany as well, being mostly affected by arrivals through the Balkans. It's also important to know that there is an agreement between European Union and Turkey, providing that Turkey receive economic aids from the European Union, in order to manage migrants on its territory. And in case of an intercept at sea, the migrant must be handed over to Turkish authorities. In this slide on the left side, you can see how close are the maritime borders from the two countries. And consequently, it's difficult to control them. The geopolitical situation is part of more made complicated by the presence of disputes over the giant island. But why maritime, why, why a NATO maritime operation. The Union was the first actor interested in solving migrant issues, but considering the Turkey involvement out of Europe, it was a necessary proposal mission under NATO flag as the opportunity to match all involved actors. Therefore, NATO decided to join international forces in dealing with this humanitarian crisis with security and safety implication. The activity is performed together with other agency and Coast Guard in four focus areas that you can see on the right side of the slide. For patrol areas, Papa 1, Papa 2, Papa 3, and Papa 4, using part of the standing maritime NATO group assets that operate especially in Papa 1 and Papa 2 sectors. The next energy tool is a high readiness group of a light ship that operate in Mediterranean and Black Sea. Reinforce for this specific operation by additional ships. The task unit 01 that you see on the left, on the left side, currently composed by a German flagship, three Greek ships and 130 ships. In order to accomplish this task as an energy tool and specifically the task unit 01 as to conduct reconnaissance monitoring a surveillance of illegal crossing in support of Turkish and Greek coast guard. And authorities suggest from text, the European border border and Coast Guard agency ensuring a permanent presence of at least the units on task to units on task. NATO ship complement the Coast Guard of Turkish or Turkey and Greece as well as from text vessel. They are larger ships than from text vessels vessels and they have a very modern system for surveillance. They can also operate even under unfavorable conditions and the sensor and radars have a broader reach. The second task is identify, track, investigate and report anomalies, which may suggest activities that could be related to terrorism or to illegal migrants trafficking. So NATO task is not to stop or push back the migrant boats, but to help the allies, European Union, European Union and agency in their efforts to cut the phenomenon. The key to the success of the operation is close cooperation with all stakeholders in the area. The city would zero one has not a direct link with external agency, but it is in touch to the Greek and Turkish license officers embark on board the German create. Therefore, they pass any migrants related information to their national authorities, following their specific agreements. In the months created good cooperation was not the easiest move, but the use of a super farthest assets, such as Germany, overall has promoted a good and fruitful cooperation, despite some occasional fictions. The other task is related to some operations. In case of sour operation, establish communication with the regional coordinator center responsible for search and rescue. So in accordance with international law or ship that sale, including NATO ships have to rescue people in distress at sea. Nevertheless, in case of search and rescue operations are like vessels will live up to their national responsibility. To manage better legal issues connected to the presence of migrants on board. Let's talk about the results with some mission accomplishment. In this slide, you can see the attempts in total between 2007 2017 and 2021. In 2019, about 50,000 people in coincidence with when Turkey opened the borders. Then you can see that the phenomenon decrease, especially during the pandemic. But lastly, we are noticing again an increasing of the phenomenon, in part, in part connected to Afghan crisis, but don't like the precovid period. In this slide, you can see the success rate. The success, I mean, the success rate to reach Greek Islander. So the success rate as part of the total numbers of attempts. And you can see that the success rate in Papatou is significantly lower than the rates in other areas. The reason it might be that presence of the flagship of SNMG to task unit 01 is disproportionately higher compared with the other areas. In slide number 10, you can see that the people and miss people from 2017 in the Mediterranean. That means significantly less debt and missing compared to other areas in SNMG. In this slide, you can see that the missing people by year. As you can see, in the situation from 2015, when the better from 2016 when the operation started, generally decreased up to the present the current value of 19 people up to now. About the results we can say overall that illegal migration phenomenon is drastically reduced, contributing in human security. That's at sea is redacted, contributing in human safety to conclude my brief. NATO's task is not to stop or push back migrant sports, but cooperate with all the regional actors they call this and allies in order to reduce a migrant phenomenon in agency. Not operation in agency is effective, reducing arrivals, missing people and debt at sea. Constant professional cooperation between all partners is the key to the success. The agency activity is complementary to, you know, European Union agency and cost guard. We have a great surveillance surveillance capacity from NATO ship versus more patrol boat versatility, I mean, from text and cost guards. But finally, it's self-evident that maritime control and maritime domain are only the tip of the iceberg as a consequence of a process that must that must take place on land. Let's conclude my brief pending your question. Thank you for Admiral Russo thank you for that fantastic brief. I would like to ask you the first question. You mentioned right towards the end how you were working with other allies and stakeholders the EU and Frontex. I was wondering if you could kind of describe to us how you collaborate with them operationally. On on a German flagship. So the city you under my my command, there are two, two officers, two license officer, a Greek, a Greek officer and a Turkish officer. So the German, the German captain when see it see some migrant boat. Don't don't signal it directly to cost guard. But it do it, it does it through the license officer. The two officers are are are are connected to their national authorities. I mean the Greek with the authorities, the Turkish with the Turkish authorities. And so it's easy to manage the situation according to the specific national list. Thank you for Dr Papas Trivitas I invite both of you to keep your cameras on for the question and answer period. Also, I really like the pairing of both of you because I think it flowed naturally from one to the other because you have so much. You know, you're looking at the same space. Dr Papas Trivitas, I'd love to hear your thoughts on kind of the, the operational perspective that Dr Ria Moruso proposed, and what perhaps you thought whether you saw it in the same kind of mission accomplishment or maybe beyond what he said which basically says it comes back to problems on land. But what more in your opinion, could we be doing as we look at the whole route of unsafe mixed migration. Dr Ria, and you can call me Akis I think it's more handy my very big Greek name, surname actually, and the first name so Akis, it's fine. So, I really, I really liked, and thanks very much to Amir Rousseff for for his for his speech and I think it was a very fair and a very, you know, it reflects the situation in the in the agency. Let me put it this way, the problem, however, is not solved and Amir Rousseff did say so. Migration it seems like it has this kind of water bed situation, it's just you close one part of the migration route and another part opens up so they send me there and see it seems closed. However, we have illegal border codes from other places. Again, in 2008 or nine, the most problematic area was Western, Western Africa and the Canary Islands. Then it was from the exporter that was closed, it went to the Central Mediterranean Sea, then it went to in 2016 went to the GNC, and then now, again, the common is located back to the Central Mediterranean Sea. There's always and the smugglers are always, you know, before us so they always find the roots, and you know that they are, they can, they can smuggle people before actually, before actually the Frontex or other agents or NATO and you on others, you know, organization try to, to address the problem. So I think it's, it's the solution is, of course, it can be not only let's see but mostly online, as also the legal things online so when it comes to, for example, as the persecution smuggling of migrants ever was very recently was a I read a case, a national case in Greece, where there was, for example, there was a vessel that was rescued off Crete and high seas. It was 400 people that were smuggling the big number right so they were like four people or they were four or five people they were accused of trafficking of smuggling migrants. They went, they were, they were caught, they were, they went to Greece, they were put on trial in the first instance, you know, it find them and prison them for many years because it was an aggregate crime for the 400 people they have actually smuggled. And it was also the risk of life. So there were also, there was the crime of putting people in danger actually. However, when it went to the, to the Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal state proceedings and said no there's no the case should not be convenient that people are free. Why? Because Greece did not have actually used the mechanism of the smuggling of migrants protocol to prescribe legislation to legislate in order to actually prosecute these persons to their front or the high seas on board of a foreign flag vessel. I forgot to tell you that the vessel was from Kiribati Island. So Kiribati Island was the flag state. So Greek court said, okay, you have to be prosecuted by whom? By Kiribati. How do you doubt that Kiribati would prosecute these persons that were smuggling migrants in the United States? There's not only having great Navy power and we really thank NATO and what have done in the GNC, but also have laws in place in domestically, have cooperation, have preventive measures, have a very good risk analysis of the future migration routes. And of course, I mean, you know, in a very utopian world with great note how people they will need protection, right, because they will never flee from their camps is ideal. However, this is not very realistic, pragmatic for the time being. However, as I said, and I will stop with this, it's a very, very difficult problem, and especially from legal speaking, it's very complicated. Thanks. Thank you very much. Hi, I'm from Rousseau I'd like to ask you a question you described what I would consider a huge operational success, and how you were saving lives in your area of responsibility. I was wondering in general, to me NATO treats this as an operational problem. Do you think they have a strategic vision on how to do migrant operations in the future. It's a very difficult to answer this question. Of course, the energy activity we saw that it's an effective operation, but there are not other NATO operations in the world so speak about a strategic vision overall. It's a big deal, in my opinion, but it's a good example of how a great community as NATO can or must cooperate to solve a big problem that involves countries that belong to the same organization, but maybe different interests. I don't know if I answered your question. Thank you for that answer. Did you have a thought on that as well. I think NATO's role was was very welcome, especially the period, because it is the tension between Greece and Turkey NATO was like a secondary right so it was there and the cooperation with my roots so the description of the Greek, Turkish, you know, counterparts in NATO was was very welcoming period. As I told you, I think that this is a very interesting. And this is happening right now in Europe, to a certain extent the other organization I was consulted from Dex and other agencies, they are moving to what we call multi dimensional operations. Initially, it was only a responsible component to fight smuggling of migrants, and now in the new iteration of the regulation from regulation, there is can actually tackle every national organized crime from a drug trafficking smuggling of migrants, and the other reason weapons smuggling are all under the sun. The same seems to apply in the other EU operations, I recently heard of the EU operation of the Lada Somalia now has also among dates, not only to monitor illegal fees but also in more to drug trafficking. So I think that, you know, cooperation with cooperation in the ranges cooperation cooperation NATO from Dex or rather, you know, a naval operations, but also a multi hat operation multi places to operation I think it's is the future of in mark and law enforcement. I mean, I need stress, this is maybe an item for lawyers because it's a different legal basis if you want to, to a drug trafficking vessel, different legal base we need to feature inspection different legal basis when you do counter drug, you know, smuggling, smuggling, smuggling migration operation. And this is, this is something which is, you know, it becomes a very good work for us and for a lot more navy lawyers or costal lawyers, but I think it's also very challenging operation for people at sea. Thank you. You mentioned that your previous experience you, you worked on terrorism missions and other types of activities in the maritime environment. What we've heard from a lot of our panelists throughout our event is, is there's, you know, these water routes these maritime channels are being used for a variety of different activities on the sea. Could you talk to how you have had migration kind of overlap with other kind of illegal activities. Of course, my perspective is the perspective of a submarine or submarine. When, when you know a submarine, the submarine can, can be used to in their collection to monitor to surveillance and and the day or day or availability is to see something without modifying the behavior of who make illegal activities. So in my, in my experience, I I face sometimes some, some migrants carried by mother ships and that thinking not to be, not to be seen at certain time, cut, cut the cables and leave these migrants alone. Alone at sea, with just a telephone. This is my experience in Central Mediterranean. Of course, of course, these these these behavior, these behavior was, was illegal. But the presence of the submarine that in the case was good to, to, to make come a ship that with the boarding team arrest the the smugglers. This is an example of life at sea that I experienced on my summaries. Thank you. I have a question for both of you from one of our panel or one of our participants today. Given the current situations on land and protect projected trends and climate. Is there the potential that will kind of get into locked into a water bed effect moving from one operation to another to another. And that at some point countries might decide that the cost of naval operations may not be worth it to continue in this space. Acus, could you start and then I'll give the Admiral a chance. Thank you. Thank you. So the next one question. And, you know, this is I'm not very positive that migration will vary. The problem of the refugee crisis migration crisis, whatever we name it, it is will be a matter of few years to stop and we have now with a climate change with some other top of importance. So we have a potential refugee environmental refugees as they usually are called right so that we're living from states that will be, you know, and I know there will be other this the high tide very soon right. So it's a huge issue and probably Navy's and the cost of having all these, you know, all these navy assets and air assets that see it is very, you know, it is really something we have to take into account. What it seems to be the future and also in another respect is use and I'm always, of course, more handy to discuss about this use modern technologies use satellites or drones to monitor survey vast ocean areas and you know, you can say and not only vast ocean areas but you can be able to trap people that you're living, for example, at, you know, they are sort of lived and they're ready to leave. I mean, you can know you have a better might and domain awareness, better idea, better, you know, vision of what's what's going on. And also what is happening and, you know, at a point this is, especially, they are human rights activists, this is anathema is the idea that, you know, this kind of this idea of pool, not pushbacks but pullbacks in the in the sense of contact less, you know, control, in the sense that you can use assets and corporate states of transit like Libya or like we was having with Turkey and other states and to stop migration before these people are limited source, which raises a host of international legal questions of and human rights issues. But this is occurring, European Union also have made certain agreements with Sub-Saharan African countries, partisan agreements saying to them, please do not let people living from your state and I will fund, I will give funding to your state so I think that the future is try to try to solve problems on state of origin and state of transit, especially the origin and also trying to find very viable legal migration routes. So visas, for example, if someone is really a asylum seeker you can take a visa from a certain state and can fly safely in the state that it will be appointed to be the state that will host and protect him or her. So I think we have to think out of the box and to be able to address this issue because, you know, we cannot either have all the Navy of the world in our, for example, in NATO all the time to be the agency, or spend so much money, or be, you know, looking numbers of thousands of people dying every day at sea. So this is, you know, something which is, it needs to be a very comprehensive solution to the problem. Thank you, Acus. Amril, do you have any thoughts on whether countries might decide the cost of naval operations might not be worth it? I think that the refugee problem is going the worst. So I don't believe that the nations can consider to stop maritime activities that, as I mentioned before, are not the solution, but one of the solutions. Of course, also tactical procedures must improve because sometimes refugees use a smartphone to localize the IS from the ships and so they change the course, they change their routes. So also the tactics must change and the equipment must improve. I had about the drones and it could be a good solution, but I definitely think that nations don't stop these activities. They can't stop. Thank you so much for that answer. I'd like to, you both kind of are alluding to what the future might look like. So I'd like to get a sense of kind of how you do your maritime domain awareness right now and it seems mostly in a response mode, how you might monitor in the future and then taking that a step further if you kind of could dream about how we could do this better in the maritime environment, what would that look like? Admiral, would you like to start? Yes, as I mentioned before, we need more improved equipment. It's good to have a good cooperation with our agency. It means to have a clear picture of what happened at sea. Some Marines can be used to intercept the ships, the mother ships, rather than the boats that don't spoke IS, for example, but also drones, air assets. All can be useful to accomplish this mission. We need a good network from all the agency, from all countries, and there are good examples about it. We are not behind on this issue. Can you describe the command and control that is used amongst NATO ships and other partnerships in the maritime environment? Yes, principally we have the operational center. There are the fusion of all the information that arrive from the sea, from the air, from the naval assets, from the submarine, from the equipment ashore. This fusion center, often connected to civilian agency, are the key to reach the result. In my experience, in NATO environment, but also in my country environment, in Italian simply, they are very effective. Excellent. Akis, would you like to answer my previous question? Yes. Thank you, Andrea. I mean, it's, as I described, as a, you know, implicated mission before, I think there is, you know, technology could be a key. It won't be the solution, but it would be a key to ameliorate the situation and facilitate maritime domain awareness. I'm actually at the adults forum working on a project of how you can use satellites and satellite evidence to actually, to curb illegal unregulated report-fishing and also to protect marine biodiversity. It is true we have, we have done research on this and satellites may use, may be used and they are used, especially with when you can corroborate and correlate the evidence with IS or VMS data and can be helpful, not only to monitor marine protect areas, areas that they are far at the middle of the ocean, but also can, you know, if it correlates with other evidence, you can have that, you know, you can be helpful before a court of law. Nevertheless, so far, what is the outcome of our research and these creatures, of course, can be, you know, exported also to other domains like migrant, this is not enough. So I will get, I will very much agree with the other rules so that, you know, navies are still important and they will be. Assets at sea is important, but you may have, you know, you may have the diligence by a satellite by a drone, but you need an asset to actually arrest the people or save the people or do whatever, you know, it is, it's required. And saying about saving the people. Nowadays, I mean, you can use also technology to be able to see whether there are vessels that they are in distress and see to corroborate whether truly there's a vessel that is in distress or someone is just, you know, is playing with you right so and these satellites and drones, but wherever they are applicable and they are, they could be extremely, you know, a use for navies and states. Thanks. Well, this concludes our panel for today, I'd like to thank so much, and the admiral for joining us. Fantastic naval focus on this very important issue. We will take our first break, please join us at 1010 for our final panel on cultural heritage protection and the maritime environment, moderated by Dr. Chris Gispero. Thank you to the admiral and thank you, we appreciate your time.