Source: BBC
he 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.
At the time the conflicts in Syria and Iraq had begun fuelling 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.
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.
Categories: Europe, European Union, migrants, refugees, The Muslim Times