Lords Committee: EU anti-people smuggling operation ‘not working’

The House of Lords’ EU External Affairs Sub-Committee has published a report into Operation Sophia, and says the EU naval mission to tackle people smuggling in the central Mediterranean is not working because of an inability to disrupt smugglers’ business model and a lack of support from the Libyan government.

On 22 June 2015, the European Union launched a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operation to disrupt the business model of people smuggling in the Southern Central Mediterranean. On 28 September 2015, the mission was renamed Operation Sophia, after a baby born aboard one of the mission’s ships off the coast of Libya. It patrols the high seas off the coast of Libya to Italy, gathering information, rescuing migrants, and destroying boats used by smugglers.

Through the course of the inquiry, the committee took evidence on whether Operation Sophia was delivering its mandate, progress to date in gathering intelligence on smuggling networks, the appropriateness of the mission’s mandate, plans for the next phases of the mission and how Operation Sophia works alongside other actors including Frontex’s Operation Triton off the coast of Italy, the work of NGOs in the Mediterranean Sea and the new NATO mission in the Aegean.

Its key findings include:

Chairman of the committee, Lord Tugendhat, said: “The EU naval mission in the central Mediterranean, Operation Sophia, patrols an area that’s around six times larger than Italy and this was always going to present an enormous challenge.

“Its aim is to disrupt the business model of the smugglers, through intelligence gathering and intercepting and destroying vessels used by smugglers.

“Our report stresses that the operation is succeeding in carrying out its separate search and rescue obligations, which is to be commended. This is a humanitarian obligation that should be maintained.

“However, a naval mission cannot disrupt the business model of people smuggling, and in this sense it is failing. The smuggling networks operate from Libya, and they extend through Africa. Without support from a stable Libyan Government, the operation is unable to gather the intelligence it needs or tackle the smugglers onshore.

“While there are plans for further phases of the mission which would see Operation Sophia acting in Libyan territorial waters and onshore, we are not confident that the new Libyan Government of National Accord will be in a position to work closely with the EU and its Member States any time soon.

“And when it comes to disrupting the smugglers’ business model, the report finds that the destruction of vessels has so far been insignificant to the scale of the smuggling industry, and we have heard that the smugglers are simply changing their tactics in response. By the time the boats are in the open sea, the smugglers are no longer on board, and so only low level targets have been arrested.”