Reporting from Catania
In April, the Dutch crew of the Royal Kustwacht (Netherlands Coastguard) – usually based at Schiphol Airport – started daily patrols over the Mediterranean (Italian territorial waters and beyond, towards Libya). For a month now, the Dornier 228 has been used exclusively by Operation Triton: surveillance of the EU’s maritime borders. As a result, at 9:00 at the Sigonella naval air station, near Catania in Sicily, five Dutch army men and civil servants, assisted by an Italian…