EU mission 'failing' to disrupt people-smuggling from Libya

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The EU naval mission to tackle people smuggling in the central Mediterranean is failing to achieve its aims, a British parliamentary committee says.
In a report, the House of Lords EU Committee says Operation Sophia does not "in any meaningful way" disrupt smugglers' boats.
The destruction of wooden boats has forced the smugglers to use rubber dinghies, putting migrants at even greater risk, the document says.
Operation Sophia began in June 2015, as the wars in Syria and Iraq fuelled an unprecedented flow of refugees from the Middle East to Europe.
But the majority leaving Libya - itself wracked by fighting and human rights abuses - are migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
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The operation was launched in the wake of a series of disasters in which hundreds of migrants drowned while trying to cross from Libya to Italy.
The numbers risking their lives on the Libya-Italy route have been increasing, while the numbers reaching the Greek islands from Turkey have dropped.
An EU agreement with Turkey to intercept migrant boats in the Aegean Sea and send many migrants back took effect in March.
Last year the EU authorised its vessels to board, search, seize and divert vessels suspected of being used for people smuggling in the central Mediterranean.

Operation Sophia

  • Almost 14,000 migrants rescued since operation began (22 June 2015)
  • 114 people smugglers' boats seized
  • 69 suspected smugglers and traffickers arrested by Italian authorities
  • Operation has five warships - Italian flagship Cavour, two German, one UK, one Spanish
  • And seven aircraft (three helicopters, four planes)
Source: EUNavFor Med - Operation Sophia, 13 May 2016

'Responding to symptoms'

The House of Lords report states that "the arrests made to date have been of low-level targets, while the destruction of vessels has simply caused the smugglers to shift from using wooden boats to rubber dinghies, which are even more unsafe".
It says that there are also "significant limits to the intelligence that can be collected about onshore smuggling networks from the high seas".
"There is therefore little prospect of Operation Sophia overturning the business model of people smuggling," the document concludes.
It adds that the mission is still operating out in interna
tional waters, and not - as originally intended - in Libyan waters.

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