Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

EU to present UN resolution to seize migrant smugglers’ boats

  • The EU will ask a UN mandate to capture boats before they are used to smuggle migrants to Europe through the Mediterranean sea (Photo: noborder network)

Two weeks after leaders said they wanted to destroy boats used by smugglers to bring migrants across the Mediterranean, the EU is getting ready to present a resolution to the UN Security Council and get the international backing it needs.

EU chief diplomat Federica Mogherini will brief the Security Council on the issue on Monday (11 May) and a text prepared by the EU member states with a seat the council should be put forward for a vote.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Next to permanent members Britain and France, Lithuania and Spain are currently non-permanent members of the council.


At the emergency summit on migration on 23 April, EU leaders tasked Mogherini to prepare plans to "identify, capture and destroy vessels before the are used by traffickers".

But UN backing is likely to be difficult with veto-holding China and Russia – in particular – especially wary of allowing military operations.

"Apprehending human traffickers and arresting these vessels is one thing, but destroying them would be going too far," Russia ambassador to the EU Vladimr Chizhov said on Tuesday.

"We can’t support going as far as destroying ships," he said, suggesting that Russia might support a less ambitious EU plan.

UN Secretary general Ban Ki Moon also said that "destroying the boats is not the appropriate way".

The EU resolution will exclude the destruction of boats in Libya’s territorial waters or of vessels sailing under international flags.

But the text will ask permission to seize vessels in high seas, as well as Libyan territorial waters and Libyan coast before they embark migrants.

According to the AFP news agency, operational plans will include a strengthening of the EU’s intelligence capacities in the region to identify traffickers and track their movements.

Phone tapping, information gathered by EU ships in the Mediterranean, as well as radar and aerial surveillance are the methods that will be used.

If the EU gets a UN green light in the coming weeks, it will still need time to work out the individual financial contributions of member states and asset contributions.

EU to 'capture and destroy' migrant traffickers' boats

EU leaders are to ask foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to look into setting up a defence mission that would "identify, capture and destroy vessels" potentially used by human traffickers.

EU mission could endanger refugees, UN warns

A senior UN official has warned the EU that “innocent refugees” will be “in the line of fire” of any operation to sink migrant smugglers’ boats.

Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access

70 percent of northern Gaza is facing famine, new data shows. There is one shower per 5,500 people, and 888 people per toilet. 'How can you live in these conditions?" asked Natalie Boucly of UNRWA at the European Humanitarian Forum.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us