The E.U. Agrees to Naval Intervention on Migrant Smugglers

European foreign and defense ministers agreed on Monday to use naval forces to intercept and disrupt ships used by smugglers of migrants from North Africa, a far more assertive attempt to combat the swelling migration crisis that has led to thousands of deaths at sea.

Migrants disembarked from an Italian Navy ship last 
month after being rescued in the Mediterranean and 
brought to Sicily. Credit Lynsey Addario for NYT

The aim of the program is to stop smugglers with human cargo before or shortly after they leave the shores of North African nations like Libya. European navies could then return migrants to nearby African ports or take them to Europe for asylum review, and would destroy the ships used to transport them.

The Italian defense minister, Roberta Pinotti, top, speaking 
to Federica Mogherini, the European Union foreign policy 
chief, center, in Brussels on Monday at a meeting of foreign 
and defense ministers. Getty Images

The decision to militarize the response appeared to have the support of the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said the alliance could offer assistance if called on. But the use of European naval power to address the crisis will require further approval from European governments as well as coastal states in North Africa or from the United Nations Security Council.

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The decision also involved delicate packaging and diplomacy, given the sensitivity in some countries, like Ireland and Sweden, toward the use of military force. Specifically, the proposals were presented as aimed at disabling the smuggling operations behind the migration surge, rather than at the desperate migrants themselves.

The intervention, though, would most likely have the effect of preventing some of the tens of thousands of people fleeing conflicts and economic hardship in the Middle East and Africa from making their way to European shores.

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