Brussels, 23/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The EUNAVFOR Med military operation against smugglers “could be a strategic and humanitarian political disaster - but above all an ethical failure that would be completely inconsistent with the European Union's values and the normative ambitions of European neighbourhood policy”, says essayist, academic and Euro-Mediterranean network presenter Alvaro de Vasconcelos, who was previously also director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies.
In a column published in Portuguese daily newspaper Publico on 15 June, de Vasconcelos calls on High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini “to propose an alternative plan that combines a rescue operation on the high seas with a strategy to deal with the Libyan crisis and the war in Syria”.
In addition, he believes that if a “military intervention in Libya is deployed, far from solving the problems causing the traffic of refugees, it might destroy the smuggler boats and aggravate the civil war there. Any intervention force could become a target for Libyan militias, adding a new dimension to the existing conflicts” because “air power alone will not be able to eliminate the smuggling”.
In his column, de Vasconcelos underlines the main causes of the Mediterranean tragedy - “the majority of people crossing the Mediterranean through the illegal emigration routes are fleeing the wars sweeping the failed states of the Middle East - particularly in Syria, Iraq and Libya”.
The reason for the lack of solidarity in Europe towards these people is, according to de Vasconcelos, the growing influence of populists, “who claim that refugees and immigrants are a threat to security, employment and national identity - particularly if they are Muslims. Islamophobia is rife throughout the continent, and the leaders of major democratic parties have allowed their speeches to become contaminated with this anti-immigration rhetoric which conflates immigrants, refugees and terrorists as threats to employment because of Europe's freedom of movement under the Schengen Convention”. (Fathi B'Chir)