Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the country of origin was of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa who were intercepted by (a) NATO (b) EU and (c) UK maritime operations in each of the last two years.
Penny Mordaunt
NATO is not conducting any operations in the South Central Mediterranean and has therefore not rescued any people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa.
The main countries of origin of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa and rescued by EU and UK maritime operations are the following:
Algeria
Cameroon
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana
Gambia
Guinea
Ivory Coast
Mali
Morocco
Nigeria
Senegal
Somalia
Sudan
The only UK maritime operation over the last two years in the Central Mediterranean was conducted in May and June 2015, where HMS BULWARK rescued 4,747 persons from the following nationalities:
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Chad
Ethiopia
Eretria
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Libya
Mali
Morocco
Nigeria
Pakistan
Senegal
Sudan
We do not centrally hold information on the nationalities of persons rescued by NATO or EU operations in the Central Mediterranean. The FRONTEX website does have information about numbers and nationalities of migrants attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean from North Africa.
