EU minister has approved an Australian-style strategy to use naval forces to destroy “the business model of people smugglers”, who take advantage of the desperate migrants to put their lives at risk by boarding unseaworthy boats.
The EU has been struggling to cope with a recent spike in illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East taking the rickety journey via the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.
People smuggling remains a lucrative business for traffickers, with the survivors in Italy saying they were charged $500-$1,000 for the dangerous journey.
Over 5,000 people are feared to have died on the journey over the past 18 months.
Smugglers usually abandon vessels in the hands of untrained migrants and leave on speedboats, leading thousands of deaths on the rough seas.
The tougher move in Europe comes amid fears that Islamic State militants are being smuggled among African refugees into the region as it is not possible to identify who is who.
The naval operation will have three phases: 1) intelligence gathering on smugglers, 2) inspection and detection of smuggler boats, 3) interception and destruction of those boats before lives are at risk on the high seas, said the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
"It is not so much the destruction of the boats but the destruction of the business models of the (smugglers') networks themselves," BBC News quoted Mogherini as saying.
The third phase is believed to depend on the UN Security Council approval as it requires operations within Libya, a country torn apart by feuding militias.
The mission, to be based in Rome and led by Italian Rear Admiral Enrico Credendino will start next month with warships and surveillance aircraft monitoring the Libyan waters.
Mogherini added that co-operation with the recognized government of Libya would be vital to make the operation succeed.
The EU also plans to tighten regulations to be able to send home economic migrants as too many irregular migrants, not recognized as asylum seekers, manage to stay in Europe, overstretching the budget and quota intended for the most vulnerable.
Australian precedent
Faced with a similar situation leading to thousands of deaths at sea, Australia made dramatic changes in its immigration policy in 2013 amid the growing pre-election domestic pressure to stop boats in the final months of the former Labor government led by Kevin Rudd.
The policy has been taken further by the current Liberal National coalition government, led by Tony Abbott, which effectively zeroed illegal boat arrivals and deaths, allowing the government to use its quota for the most vulnerable, instead of so-called “queue jumpers”.
The changes adopted with bi-partisan support of the two major parties made it clear that anyone who seek to enter Australia illegally by boat, under the Asylum Legacy Act, are no longer entitled to enter or stay in Australia while their refugee claims are processed.
They are transferred to Nauru or Papua New Guinea for processing, and are explained that they will not be considered for resettlement in Australia, instead given an option to return or choose to be settled in Cambodia.
The then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison described restrictions to the resettlement eligibility as "taking the sugar off the table".
The government also introduced Temporary Protection Visa's (TPV) late 2014 to specifically deal with the backlog of 30,000 asylum seekers yet to be processed left by the former government.
A TPV holding refugees are required to reapply every three years, in case conditions had changed in their homeland, making it safe for their return.
Operation Sovereign Borders included plans to raise awareness in local communities, buy back unsafe boats which would go to the hands of smugglers, work with intelligence wardens and bounty payments for useful information.
The Australian government reported that there was 0 boat arrival in 2014, compared to 300 boats with approximately 20,000 people on board arrived in 2013.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the EU in April that stopping the boats was the only workable solution to save lives and break the business model of the people smugglers.
"The only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people smuggling trade. The only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats," he advised.
Despite its effectiveness to prevent deaths at sea, it is generally agreed that stopping boats don’t address the “root cause” and humanitarian side of the problem, which require closer cooperation and joint efforts of the regional governments to improve situation in the source countries.
