A failed migrant policy

The number of recorded casualties on the central Mediterranean route – between Libya and Italy – rose by 42% to more than 4,500 people drowning in 2016 compared with 3,175 in 2015. So far in 2017 there have been 2,150 deaths.

The tactics used by the European Union’s naval mission – in which Britain plays a leading role – to tackle people-smuggling in the Mediterranean have resulted in more deaths at sea of refugees and migrants, a cross-party House of Lords inquiry has concluded.

The peers say an unintended consequence of Operation Sophia’s policy of destroying smugglers’ boats has been that they have adapted and sent refugees and migrants to sea in unseaworthy vessels, leading to more deaths. The Lords’ EU external affairs sub-committee says the bloc’s naval operation has failed in its mission to disrupt the business of people-smuggling in the central Mediterranean and its mandate should not be renewed. The initiative has had little impact on the flow of irregular migrants. However, the peers say its search and rescue work, which has involved saving the lives of more than 33,830 people since its inception, should continue.

The peers were told that as of 19 June, 110 smugglers had been arrested as a result of the mission, most of whom were “lower down the food chain”, with only one of the arrests involving a leader of a people-smuggling ring – an Eritrean. The naval ships had been successful in destroying 452 boats that had been used in smuggling operations. But this had led to a change in the “business model” used by the smugglers, who were no longer sending larger vessels with 500 or 600 people or more aboard which were capable of reaching the centre of the Mediterranean. Instead inflatable boats were being picked up 12 miles off the coast. The peers say this change, which means 70% of all boats leaving the Libyan coast are now dinghies, has made the crossing increasingly dangerous for migrants and led to the rise in the number of deaths at sea. 

Lady Verma, the committee chair, said that as people-smuggling began onshore a naval mission was the wrong tool for tackling a dangerous, inhumane and unscrupulous business: “Once the boats have set sail, it is too late...it is critical that the EU’s lifesaving search and rescue work continues, but using more suitable, non-military, vessels.” she said.