The EU-wide police operation ‘Mos Maiorum’ is taking place in most EU member states from 13 to 26 October 2014. This joint operation is coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with Frontex. Its aim is to apprehend irregular migrants in the Schengen area and gather relevant information including how they were detected, their personal details, as well as the routes and means of transport used. During the operation, controls in the participating countries are expected to be intensified, particularly in airports and train stations, but may also include sweeps in selected areas. More information on the operation is available here.

What can you do?

To find out if your country participates in this operation and to what extent, you may contact your Ministry of the Interior or the police. They might not reveal much information but this could help you to better inform your network of what to expect.

You may also wish to contact the European Council and Italian Presidency directly to express your concern about the operation. If you wish to contact those responsible for its coordination at EU level, you may use the following contacts which were provided to EU member states:

- General Secretariat of the Council: gavriil.kampouroglou@consilium.europa.eu

- Italian Central Directorate for Immigration and Border Police: gruppo.frontiere@interno.it

You can also write to your MEP (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/map.html) asking them to take a strong stand against such control-based measures. The EEP group European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) has already condemned the operation in an open letter to the JHA Council which met on 9 October asking for the operation to be cancelled.