The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) first participated in a FRONTEX mandated operation back in 2006 as part of the Joint Operation (JO) NAUTILUS. This was hosted locally with the focus being on the migration flows in the Central Mediterranean region and saw the contribution of maritime and air assets between 2006 and 2009 along with the provision of an International Coordination Centre (ICC). The following year in 2007 the AFM started contributing human resources and specialised equipment to JO POSEIDON monitoring the EU external maritime border in the Aegean. Initially these deployments were limited to land observation teams until in 2011 this contribution was increased with the deployment of a coastal patrol boat (CPB) working in conjunction with the land observation teams. Since then Malta pledged participation in JO POSEIDON on a yearly basis with the exception of 2017. A further joint operation was joined in 2013 when the AFM deployed a number of teams of land border surveillance officers to the EU external land borders in Greece and Bulgaria along the Serbian, Northern Macedonian and Turkish borders. This contribution is also ongoing on a yearly basis. The latest FRONTEX deployment to be embarked upon by the AFM is the deployment of Information Management Officers to the FRONTEX Situation Centre in Warsaw, Poland, participation which started in 2018.
Other FRONTEX operations in which the AFM has participated in the past are JO INDALO in 2007 and 2012 focusing on the migration flows in the Western Mediterranean region; JO AENEAS in 2013 with the focus being the Ionian Sea and JO TRITON between 2014 and 2016 focusing on the Central Mediterranean region.
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