Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK’s naval contribution to EU anti-people trafficking operations in the Mediterranean.

Penny Mordaunt

The UK is contributing HMS ENTERPRISE to Operation SOPHIA and eight staff to the Operational Headquarters. HMS ENTERPRISE has been valuable in developing a picture of the maritime environment and smuggling routes. UK assets have destroyed 27 vessels to prevent re-use and identified nine smugglers to the Italian authorities. Furthermore, UK ships have rescued over a quarter of the total number of migrants saved by the entire operation – 3,700 out of 13,700. More broadly, we assess that Operation SOPHIA has left the smugglers unable to operate with impunity in international waters. This is progress on which we can build. We remain committed to working with the Libyan Government of National Accord to move to the later phases of the operation once the right conditions are in place and prevent the smugglers from putting people to sea.