UK 'pulling back' from migrant rescue with HMS Enterprise deployment
|
Version 0 of 1. The primary role of the Royal Navy vessel replacing HMS Bulwark on duty in the Mediterranean will not be to rescue of migrants but a military mission to “go after the human smugglers and traffickers”. Defence sources said HMS Enterprise, a oceanographic survey ship a fifth the size of HMS Bulwark, will not be part of Operation Triton, the EU search and rescue effort that has plucked thousands of migrants out of the sea from boats trying to make the crossing from Libya. The ship will come under the command of a separate EU naval force announced on Monday and charged with a mission to identify, capture and dispose of boats used or suspected of being used by smugglers. It will be one of eight vessels, including two submarines, in the force led by the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour. The EU summit later this week will be asked to approve a timetable for the move from the first, intelligence gathering phase of the operation to the second phase of search and seizure of smugglers’ boats. The chancellor, George Osborne, told MPs last Wednesday that Britain would continue to “play its full part in the search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean” when Labour challenged him over HMS Bulwark’s replacement. The deployment of HMS Enterprisewas announced quietly over the weekend. HMS Bulwark, which has saved more than 3,000 lives since it joined the search and rescue operation at the beginning of May, is a 19,500-tonne assault ship and landing dock with a crew of 325. HMS Enterprise is a 3,700-tonne vessel with a crew of 60 to 70 and capable of carrying only 120 people. The MoD anticipates that she will be involved in the EU operation against the smugglers until the autumn. Defence sources say that the new EU naval force will have “a certain remit” to respond to Italian requests to take part in search and rescue operations, but that HMS Enterprise would not take part in “proactive” searches and would only be involved in rescue if she was the best placed vessel in the area. The ship will also be under the general maritime duty to respond to any vessel in distress. A British Merlin helicopter will still be part of Operation Triton, and two small Border Force or HMRC cutters will take part in the operations of the EU’s border agency, Frontex. “HMS Enterprise is well suited to the next stage of the EU’s operation, which aims to go after the criminal gangs and smugglers,” said an MoD spokesman. “The ship will contribute to the broad maritime capabilities desired by the Italian operational commander and will assist in the understanding and picture-building of how the operation will go on to seize and disrupt the assets of smugglers.” The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said that as a multi-role survey ship, HMS Enterprise was well placed to “provide important assistance as we now move into this next stage.” Downing Street has already announced that GCHQ and National Crime Agency staff are to be seconded to an intelligence cell based in Italy aimed at targeting the smugglers. Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called for an urgent clarification of the new British role in the Mediterranean. “Last week George Osborne said that taking people out of the sea and preventing them from drowning was essential for a humanitarian nation. Those words seem to ring hollow when the UK government is now pulling back from full participation in search and rescue,” she said. She said the prime minister, David Cameron, should “urgently clarify the UK’s new role and ensure capability in search and rescue isn’t being hindered by the decisions of our government,” she said. “We should be doing more, not less to stop people drowning in the Mediterranean.” |