Nato aids crackdown on people smugglers
Hours after Nato defence ministers agreed to use their maritime force in the eastern Mediterranean to help combat traffickers, said Supreme Allied Commander General Philip Breedlove he was working quickly to design the mission.
“We are sailing the ships in the appropriate direction,” Gen Breedlove told a news conference, and the mission plan would be refined during the time they were en route.
“That’s about 24 hours.”
The plan, which was first raised only on Monday by Germany and Turkey, took Nato by surprise and is aimed at helping the continent tackle its worst migration crisis since the Second World War . More than 1m asylum-seekers arrived last year.
Gen Breedlove said Nato would also monitor the Turkey-Syria land border.
Although the plan is still to be detailed by Nato generals, the allies are likely to use the ships to work with Turkish and Greek coastguards and the European Union border agency Frontex.
“There is now a criminal syndicate that is exploiting these poor people and this is an organised smuggling operation,” US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter told reporters.
“Targeting that is the way that the greatest effect can be had... That is the principal intent of this.”
The numbers of people fleeing war and failing states, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa, show little sign of falling, despite winter weather that makes sea crossings more perilous.
A €3bn deal between the EU and Turkey to stem the flows has yet to have a big impact.
Germany said that it would take part in the Nato mission along with Greece and Turkey, while the US, Nato’s most powerful member, said it fully supported the plan.
The alliance’s so-called Standing Nato Maritime Group Two has five ships near Cyprus, led by Germany and with vessels from Canada, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
Nato and the EU are eager to avoid the impression that the 28-nation military alliance is now tasked to stop refugees or treat them as a threat.
NATO agree to send three warships to the Aegean with remarkable speed https://t.co/AQDvw60Cxl pic.twitter.com/KtLA2mCCrO
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 11, 2016
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