Operation Mare Nostrum

The European Commission provided financial support for the operation with €1.8 million from the External Borders Fund.

[5] The operation's search and rescue component is claimed by advocacy groups like the European Council on Refugees and Exiles to have saved thousands of lives, but the operation was politically unpopular and extremely costly for just one EU state.

[9] Two major migrant shipwreck disasters which together killed more than 1000 people within the span of a week in April 2015 led to calls to renew the operation.

The navy units deployed consisted of: The air units involved helicopters, one MM P180 aircraft equipped with FLIR, two Camcopter S-100 unmanned aerial vehicles on board the ship San Giusto and two maritime patrol aircraft.

[12] It provided its patrol vessel Triglav, which assisted in general surveillance of the waters surrounding Lampedusa from 15 December 2013 to the end of January the following year.

Fenice is one of the eight corvettes of Minerva class with the role of surveillance of fisheries; from November 2013 it took part in the Operation Mare Nostrum rescuing the boats of irregular migrants coming from North Africa .