EU naval mission against people smuggling failing to achieve aims

A British parliamentary committee has said that the EU’s naval mission (Operation Sophia) to tackle people smuggling in the Mediterranean is failing to achieve its aims.

The operation, which started in 2015, was set up in the wake of a number of disasters where hundreds of refugees died trying to cross from Libya to Italy. Under the operation, the EU authorised its vessels to board, search, seize and divert vessels suspected of being used for people smuggling. The mission has been credited with saving about 9,000 lives since its launch.

However, a report by the House of Lords EU Committee alleges that Operation Sophia does not "in any meaningful way" disrupt smugglers' boats, with the destruction of wooden boats forcing smugglers to use rubber dinghies, putting migrants at even greater risk.

The report adds that "the arrests made to date have been of low-level targets,” and 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.

The report also remarks that the weakness of the Libyan state is a key factor in the failure of the mission, with the mission still operating out in international waters, and not - as originally intended - in Libyan waters.

The reports insists that the absence of a formal invitation from Libya is preventing European Nato members from launching a military intervention, aimed at tackling the threat posed to Libya - and the wider region - by so-called Islamic State.

"However valuable as a search and rescue mission, Operation Sophia does not, and, we argue, cannot deliver its mandate. It responds to symptoms, not causes."