EU to launch military operations against migrant-smugglers in Libya

[Redheart]

It's about time they were stopped. Too many people have lost their lives.

EU to launch military operations against migrant-smugglers in Libya | World news | The Guardian

The European Union is to launch military operations against the networks of smugglers in Libya deemed culpable of sending thousands of people to their deaths in the Mediterranean.

Related: Italy counts up to 900 migrants dead and launches rescues of two more boats

An emergency meeting of EU interior and foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, held in response to the reported deaths of several hundred migrants in a packed fishing trawler off the Libyan coast at the weekend, also decided to bolster maritime patrols in the Mediterranean and give their modest naval mission a broader search-and-rescue mandate for saving lives.

A summit of EU leaders is to take place in Brussels on Thursday to hammer out the details of the measures hurriedly agreed on Monday. The 28 EU governments called for much closer cooperation with Libya’s neighbours, such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Niger, in an attempt to close down the migratory routes. But senior political figures and EU officials conceded this would be difficult and also voiced scepticism about the emphasis on targeting the traffickers.

Following the reported deaths of around 1,300 migrants in three incidents in less than a fortnight in the waters south of Sicily, the pressure was on the EU and its member states to come up with new policies addressing headlines branding the incidents “Europe’s shame”.

“I hope today is the turning point in the European conscience, not to go back to promises without actions,” said Federica Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister who is the EU’s chief foreign and security policy coordinator and who chaired Monday’s meeting.

The meeting “identified some actions” aimed at combatting the trafficking gangs mainly in Libya, such as “destroying ships”, Mogherini said.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration issues, said the operation would be “civil-military” modelled on previous military action in the Horn of Africa to combat Somali piracy. The military action would require a UN mandate.

No detail was supplied on the scale and range of the proposed operation, nor of who would take part in it. But European leaders from David Cameron to Angela Merkel and Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, were emphatic on Monday in singling out the fight against the migrant traffickers as the top priority in the attempt to rein in a crisis that is spiralling out of control.

 

[BigBIgFan]

At face value this announcement sounds like a good idea but dig into the details and it's a nightmare in the making. First off, a military operation? EU troops will enter Libya and use force against parties they deem guilty, without trial? That's not going to go well, sending your troops onto foreign soil for non-war reasons never does.

Then I ask myself, if the goal is to keep these migrants safe then shouldn't you be working with the boat owners, not against them? The EU has already shown that, like Obama, they do not intend to act against the ilegal migrants so the numbers are only going to increase. Is the EU prepared to send military boats over to bring these people in themselves? No, so they need to work with the people that are instead of against them. In my opinion they need to charge illegal imigrants, ban them from re-entering and then deport them, that by far would send the message that it's not OK to simply enter, there is a process.

The vast majority if the illegal migrants are Muslim, the EU needs to be in contact with the country of origin of these people and find a way to curb their departures. The solution isn't trying to keep them from going overboard, it's to keep them from leaving in the first place.