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EU to board unflagged vessels in migrant push

06 May 2015, 20:57 CET
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EU to board unflagged vessels in migrant push

Refugees in Lampedusa

(BRUSSELS) - EU nations will get powers to board unflagged boats in the Mediterranean in order to stop people traffickers following the worst migrant shipwreck in years, diplomats said Wednesday.

The 28-nation bloc will also boost intelligence sharing from next month after European Union leaders vowed at an emergency summit in April to take urgent steps to curb the flood of dangerously overcrowded migrant boats, they said.

But authorities will not yet be able to go as far as destroying the boats before they leave the Libyan coast, despite that being one of the options agreed on at the summit, the European diplomats added.

Outlines of the European operation to "smash the business model" of the traffickers were sketched during talks between EU ambassadors in Brussels this week, European sources told AFP.

If member states agree, their navies could board and search unflagged vessels on the high seas in order to deprive traffickers of boats often bought from fishermen or through shady smuggling networks, they said.

The Europeans believe they can act without a UN mandate against ships that fly no flag, which enjoy less protection under the law of the sea, said the diplomats.

The countries will also boost systematic intelligence sharing, an issue that has often been a problem between EU nations that, despite their economic and political links, jealously guard intelligence.

Information gathered from military surveillance planes will complement that collected from telephone eavesdropping and information provided by ships belonging to the EU border agency Frontex, a diplomat said.

"We must do more to trace the networks: what are the names of the people, who speaks to whom, find the photos," a diplomat said.

The EU is also seeking the ability to search flagged vessels and to enter Libyan territorial waters to destroy traffickers' boats, but these powers require the UN's green light.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini is due to present her bloc's military options before the UN Security Council next Monday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has rejected any "military solution" to a problem that took the world spotlight after the worst migrant shipwreck occurred in the Mediterranean last month with the drowning of an estimated 750 people.

It triggered an April 23 emergency summit of EU leaders who asked Mogherini to "propose action in order to capture and destroy the smugglers' vessels before they can be used."

But among the 28 EU member states, there are reservations on whether to launch air strikes or commando operations in Libyan ports that could result in civilian deaths or imperil negotiations aimed at forging a national unity government out of the chaos in Libya.

- Command centre in Italy -

Russia, a permanent veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, is strongly opposed to destroying boats.

"We cannot support going so far as destroying ships without a court order or without the consent of the country whose flag the vessel flies," Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian ambassador to the EU, warned.

"That would breach international law," he added. "Arresting them is one thing, destroying is going too far... that is understood by the EU, by Mogherini."

The bloc's foreign affairs and defence ministers could take the first decisions on the scope of the operation during a joint meeting on May 18.

"The Italians are ready to provide a headquarters and a commander for the operation," a diplomat said.

But others, particularly those in eastern Europe, are sceptical.

"I don't think it will be easy to settle all this between now and the European summit," which is scheduled for June 25-26, an eastern European diplomat said.

He cited the problem of financing, which is often a stumbling block in Brussels.


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