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OPERATIONS Non Combatant Evacuation Operations”, No Way Out! By Commander Chris Schrumph and Lieutenant Colonel Arthur STAM, Operations Directorate. NO way out! EU Military forces should be capable of conducting operations derived from five illustrative scenarios. One of these, “Evacuation operations”, assumes that a significant number of EU citizens, and possibly others, are threatened in a country where the local authorities are no longer able to guarantee their safety and therefore the EU decides to take action to protect them. Depending on the threat and level of violence, these operations could range from the deployment of combat forces at the high end of the violence spectrum to benign situations in which there is still a need for assistance with military capabilities. The latter operations are known as “Non- combatant Evacuation Operations”, abbreviated as NEO. This article discusses what this means in practical terms for the EU and the EUMS in particular. Scenario: Imagine you work for a multinational company somewhere outside the EU. Alternatively, you might be married to someone who doesn’t hold EU citizenship and you have decided to take residence in the country of your spouse. Or, you might be travelling to a holiday resort, far away from Europe. What would you do if a conflict situation develops which might threaten your personal safety or health? If this type of situation develops slowly and you are knowledgeable enough to monitor your home country’s Cdr Chris Schrumph and Lt Col Arthur Stam, Operations Directorate. Consular Online 20 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) “Travel Advice” ,which may be warned about the increasing instability or political turbulence and be able to take action. Normally, MFAs issue travel advice for each and every country in the world. This advice could range from “none”, which means “safe to travel”, to “caution” or “avoid certain areas” to “leave immediately”. In the latter case, travel into this country should obviously be avoided in all circumstances. If you are staying in that country you are strongly advised to leave as soon as possible ,if conditions still allow you to do so. But what happens if this dangerous situation happened suddenly, such as a natural disaster like an earthquake or flood or a military coup? Public order may have broken down, infrastructure may be destroyed and the public health system may not be accessible to you. So, you are stranded and you may have no idea how to leave the country . In principle, your home country will try to support all its citizens within its means and capabilities, and generally EU Member States (MS) would deal with the evacuation of their citizens unilaterally. But what if those capabilities are too limited, or not available? Despite the fact that all EU MS are responsible for the wellbeing of their citizens, the EU has also made arrangements to assist in these circumstances. On a routine basis the Consular Unit of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Situation Centre (SITCEN) provides a central focus for all MS’ consular issues. Besides administering the MS’ travel advice, the SITCEN aims to monitor the numbers of EU citizens in each country of interest at regular intervals. This is mainly done through the “Consular Online” (CoOL ) system, a web-based information exchange hub to which all interested parties within MS, Brussels or EU Delegations have access to. However, the means by which the SITCEN has to help citizens to leave a country, are limited. Save haven! As mentioned above, MS exercising their constitutional duties are responsible for moving their own citizens to safety. But at the same time where some MS are simultaneously trying to organise a rescue mission, there might be other MS which do not have the necessary capability in the country to help their citizens. To better coordinate all those efforts in these
Members of the NEOCC in Valetta, Malta, end of Feb 2011. circumstances, a number of states took the initiative to come together to informally coordinate their evacuation efforts. Nine MS 1 together with the United States of America, Australia and Canada formed a NEO Coordination Group (NCG) in 2000. This ad hoc group ensures that information is shared between them, that efforts are well coordinated; and if needs be, sets up a NEO Coordination Centre (NEOCC) if an evacuation of country is necessary. The EU, with representation from the SITCEN Consular Affairs unit and the EUMS, are part of the NCG as observer members The principle role of the NEOCC is to act as a nonexecutive, multi-national liaison cell operating through each nation’s own national chain of command to coordinate both effort and assets to where they are most needed during an evacuation. The goal of the NEOCC is to provide a single focus for shared situational awareness and coordination among those nations conducting evacuation operations, in order to increase the efficiency of the partnering Nation’s assets. The NEOCC concept has been developed by the NCG, which meets every 6 months, and is based experience gained during previous evacuation operations, in particular from Lebanon in 2006. During this evacuation the liaison between the different nations was uncoordinated; many evacuation assets left Lebanon half empty, without the spare capacity being offered for use by other nations. In 2010, the NCG developed a contingency plan for the employment of a NEOCC which was finalised in December 2010. Organising rescue from Malta. The Libya crisis provided the first opportunity to employ a NEOCC to coordinate a multinational evacuation effort. Shortly after the Libyan revolution started in mid February, a large number of states began to consider organising to evacuate their people from Libya it became clear that space onboard of aircraft or ships for the thousands of people to be evacuated was limited. At the same time there were large numbers of EU citizens needing to be brought out of Libya. After setting up the NEOCC the EUMS was invited to support the evacuation by liaising with the Brussels authorities. From 22 February to 06 March one action officer from the MAP Branch of 1 Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands and United Kingdom. 21 OPERATIONS the EUMS was permanently based in the NEOCC in Valetta. His duties included liaising with the SITCEN and Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) 2 of the EU Commission, having up-to-date numbers of EU citizens available, coordinating EU wide military transport capabilities via the EU Movement Planning Cell of the Logistics Directorate of the EUMS, and liaising with ECHO (Humanitarian Assistance) on the military details. How did the NEOCC function in practice during the Libya crisis? The NEOCC working routine is quite simple. A situation room is created by all or some of the NCG member at a location outside the conflict. In the case of the Libya crisis, this was in the British High Commission at Malta. Regular meetings each day with participation by all NCG members, liaison personnel from the hosting nation and also other nations if so requested, provides an opportunity to exchange information on available assets and the whereabouts of citizens. This allows a coordinated plan for the evacuation operations to be prepared the next day. The real strength of the NEOCC is proven by the fact that a number of representatives of the NCG members could have a direct link with the evacuation ships and aircraft and could provide tasking information at a very short notice allowing a timely response to a constantly evolving situation. The role of the EU liaison officer in the NEOCC was to coordinate with the EU Movement Planning Cell that was collocated with the MIC and to represent those EU Member States that were not represented in the NEOCC. Through the information provided by MIC and the SITCEN through the EU MPC, the EUMS liaison officer was able to provide details on citizens from all 27 MS, thus providing a real added value to the NEOCC. An internal evaluation by the NCG concluded that the NEOCC concept has been very successful, mainly because of its informal status, and will be applied in the future crisis situations. The NEOCC coordinated the evacuation by military means of 4,529 people of 78 different nationalities over a period of 13 days, utilising ships and aircraft from a variety of different countries. This was done by 54 evacuation sorties to 13 different locations across Libya. n Refugees waiting to be flown out of Djerba. 2 The Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), operated by the European Commission in Brussels, is the operational heart of the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection. It is available on a 24/7 basis and is staffed by duty officers working on a shift basis. It gives countries access to the community civil protection platform. Any country affected by a major disaster – inside or outside the EU – can launch a request for assistance through the MIC.
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