[WATCH] Italy, Malta pushing for EU operation targeting people smugglers

Italy, Malta pushing for EU operation targeting people smugglers

The European Union will be asked to give its “political blessing” to an operation targeting people smugglers, modelled on the successful anti-piracy mission Operation Atalanta, MaltaToday has learnt.

EU heads of states and governments will convene on Thursday in Brussels for an extraordinary summit, called following the deadliest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean that claimed the life of 700 migrants.

The emergency EU summit on Libya was requested by Italy and Malta as rescue crews continued searching for survivors and bodies. Council President Donald Tusk is now expecting the member states to present options for immediate action.

In Rome, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi made it clear that the first action should be targeting the criminal organisation making millions out of illegal immigration, netting as much as $1 million per trip sending migrants on rickety boats.

On Monday, EU foreign and interior ministers agreed to a 10-point action plan, including “a systematic effort to capture and destroy vessels used by the smugglers”.

“In reality this is the novelty point which the European Commission agreed to and it is the point that Malta welcomes,” Muscat told MaltaToday, explaining that the EU should not wait for the trafficking of human beings to take place and for tragedies to occur before action is taken.

“The EU must be active with operations targeting smugglers and stop rickety boats laden with hundreds of people from sailing the seas.”

The EU, concerned with the effect of Somali-based piracy and armed robbery at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean, in 2008 kicked off Operation Atalanta targeting pirates who take control of vessels transiting the High Risk Area in the Region and extorting ransom money for the crew, the vessel and cargo.

Since 2009, Operation Atalanta protected close to 450 vessels and transferred a total of 154 pirates to the competent authorities with a view to their prosecution.

Muscat said there are EU member states with the necessary resources to conduct such a mission and there is the political willingness.

“The EU is being asked to give its political blessing,” Muscat said, adding that the operation was about preventive action and not an invasion.

PN leader Simon Busuttil said the Opposition fully support the government’s position on the matter, saying that any mission ending the senseless loss of lives will enjoy the PN’s backing.

“We hope that concrete action is taken by the EU council … there has been too much talk and little action,” Busuttil said.

He said that the Nationalist MEPs – mostly Roberta Metsola – have made repeated calls for the deployment of naval operations as effective as Mare Nostrum and an operation modelled on the anti-piracy mission in Somalia.