Migrant crisis: EU to begin seizing smugglers' boats
The EU is beginning a new operation in the southern Mediterranean to intercept boats smuggling migrants, the BBC reports.
Under Operation Sophia, naval vessels will be able to board, search, seize and divert vessels suspected of being used for people smuggling.
Until now, the EU has focused on surveillance and rescue operations.
So far this year, more than 130,000 migrants and refugees have crossed to Europe from the north African coast. More than 2,700 have drowned.
However, many more migrants and refugees - mainly Syrians fleeing the country's civil war - are taking a different route. They are crossing overland into Turkey, before a short journey by sea to European Union member Greece and onwards to central and northern European countries, with Germany the preferred destination.
The migrant crisis was one of the issues raised by French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a rare joint address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
President Hollande told European MPs that Europe had initially been "slow in understanding the tragedies of the Middle East and Africa could not but have consequences for Europe itself".
The EU now needed to work together in solidarity, rather than retreating into "our own national shells", he said.
"There is a humanitarian crisis which we need to confront, with an influx of refugees... The only solution is a strong Europe."
Chancellor Merkel said the influx of refugees was "changing the agenda in Europe... global events affect us whether we like it or not".
She agreed with her French counterpart that the only way to tackle the problem was for the EU to work together - on trying to end conflict in the regions affected; on supporting countries like Turkey, which is currently home to two million Syrian refugees; and in providing a safe haven for refugees.
On migrants arriving in Europe, she said: "We must see them as people, whether they have the prospect of remaining or not. Humanitarian standards of accommodation and claim processing must be upheld."
Earlier, Spain's King Felipe VI told the parliament that there were hundreds of thousands of refugees now coming into Europe "full of hope because they see Europe as an area of peace, justice and prosperity".
He added: "We can't let these people down. We can't disappoint them. We have to be generous."
The huge numbers of migrants reaching Europe have led to a crisis within the EU, with member states at odds on how to deal with the influx.
The deadliest voyages are from Libya to Italy.
The EU launched the first phase of its operation, called EUNavfor Med, in June, using naval surveillance to detect smugglers' boats and monitor smuggling patterns from Libya towards Italy and Malta.
Operation Sophia - the second phase - has been named after a baby born on an EU ship that rescued her mother off the coast of Libya in August.
From its headquarters in Rome, the operation's commander, Rear Adm Enrico Credendino, will oversee several EU warships in the Mediterranean, including the British frigate HMS Richmond.
His deputy, Rear Adm Herve Blejean, told the BBC that six ships were being used "to start to dismantle this business model by trying to apprehend some suspected smugglers".
Adm Blejean said he hoped four more vessels would soon join the operation, staffed with professionals who were ready to deal with any threats or resistance they might encounter.
A senior migration expert has warned, however, that the EU operation in the Mediterranean will fail unless the bloc also fights criminal gangs in Europe.
Eugenio Ambrosi, of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the "transnational criminal rings of traffickers are the same as those involved in weapons and drugs".
"The boats are not the reason for the smuggling," Mr Ambrosi said, adding that if efforts are just focused on the boats, "the nucleus of the criminals remains untouched".
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