Can 'Operation Sophia' stop Mediterranean refugee trafficking?
This year, over 560,000 refugees and crossed the Mediterranean Sea to escape violent conflicts in the Middle East and north Africa. This high demand for sea passage has led human traffickers to exploit the situation by overcrowding refugees in boats, some of which have capsized and killed passengers. At the end of August, the 2,500 such refugees have died trying to reach Europe. The International Organization for Migration estimate is nearly 3,000.
Wednesday, the European Union began a new effort to curb human trafficking of refugees in the Mediterranean. Named 鈥淥peration Sophia鈥� after the baby born aboard a rescue ship to a Somali woman in August, the operation will allow naval vessels to stop, seize, and search any boats suspected of trafficking.
Search-and-rescue operations have been the EU鈥檚 focus in the past, but Operation Sophia aims to 鈥溾�� by 鈥渄isrupting the business model of human smuggling and trafficking networks in the Mediterranean,鈥� said a European Union statement.
Operation Sophia is the second phase in the EU鈥檚 crackdown on trafficking. The first phase, known previously as , was essentially an intelligence-gathering operation designed to identify and track smuggling networks, primarily along the Libya-Italy route.
鈥淭he ships contributed to save more than 3,000 migrant lives performing several rescues at sea and, following our activities,聽 have been arrested by the Italian authorities,鈥� the European Union's diplomatic service reported.
Operation Sophia does have some limitations though. Rescue ships must stick to , at least 12 nautical miles away from the Libyan coast, reports the BBC.
are currently on board 鈥� the Italian flagship 鈥淐avour鈥�, two German ships, one British frigate, one French ship, and one Spanish ship 鈥� as well as seven helicopters and planes. An additional 3 vessels from the are expected to join the operation in the coming weeks, reports Defense News.
With UN Security Council or Libyan approval, the EU would eventually move to a third phase allowing operations within Libya's own territorial waters.
鈥淚t's not immediately clear whether or not six warships, together with support helicopters and drones, will make a to the number of journeys begun by smugglers and migrants,鈥� says the BBC鈥檚 James Reynolds.
Similarly, Thierry Tardy, a senior analyst at the EU's Institute for Security Studies, wrote in a briefing last week, "There is real on whether the operation will ever be able 鈥� for either legal or political reasons 鈥� to get to the core of its mandate," reported CNN.
鈥淭he general reluctance to engage in coercive action on the part of most EU member states are all reasons that -- individually or collectively -- would make the full implementation of the operation's mandate difficult or simply impossible," Mr. Tardy said.
