With the revision of the mandate of the operation in the Mediterranean, EUnavforMed Sophia, continuing, a European source told a small group of journalists, including a member of the EUROPE team, on Wednesday 10 October, that there was no consensus between member states to expand the operation to allow it to assist in tackling the trafficking of petroleum from Libya.
The European External Action Service would like the operation to be able to carry out checks at sea on vessels suspected of being part of this trafficking. At the moment, Sophia is permitted only to collect information on this trafficking, which is believed to cost Libya $750 million a year. EUnavforMed Sophia has so far drawn up a list of 460 vessels believed to be involved.
"Everybody agrees that the Sophia mission is necessary and to prolong it [after 31 December of this year], but there is no agreement on petroleum trafficking", the same European source explained, adding that "many member states do not want it" and that giving Sophia more missions but not more resources is a "recipe for disaster".
Addressing the MEPs of the 'security/defence' committee, the commander of the operation, Enrico Credendino, called for the mission to be prolonged. "We are awaiting a political decision on the extension. There is a will to extend until June 2020. Everything is almost there, the pending issue is the question of debarkation and redistribution, which is a highly political matter", he explained.
Credendino also supports an extension of the proposed mission because, he explained, "when there is an increase in the activities of smugglers, there is an increase in the traffic of petroleum. Fighting one means fighting the other", he said.
Arrivals in Italy from Libya down by 86%
The commander referred to the results of the operation since its launch: 551 vessels neutralised, 151 suspected smugglers arrested and almost 45,000 migrants/refugees saved. Arrivals in Italy from Libya have fallen by 86% compared to the same period last year. However, although in 2017, 67% of departures from the Mediterranean were from the central Mediterranean, these represented just 21% in 2018, whilst departures from the Western Mediterranean, such as Morocco, are snowballing (from 16% to 50% of departures).
The mission is also continuing to train Libyan coastguards and the Navy. A total of 238 coastguards have already been trained and 80 are being trained at the moment. Credendino explained that the ambition was to have trained around 500 by the end of the year. Whilst at the beginning of 2017, coastguards carried out just 10% of rescue operations, the commander reported that in September 2018, almost all operations were carried out in their territorial waters. In order to help Libya, Italy is to provide 12 new patrol vessels from November. A European source said that at the moment, there were no vessels from Operation Sophia in the migrant rescue zones.
The operation also monitors the work of the Libyan coastguards at sea, but also in their headquarters. Credendino would like to do more of this work. "We have been authorised by the member states to have daily visits, we are awaiting authorisation for three-or four-day visits, to understand what the coastguards do and what they need", he explained, adding that this was part of the strategic revision currently underway. "We are ready to have two envoys in Tripoli, once the situation so allows, for three to four days per week", he added (see EUROPE 12053).
Finally, concerning work on respecting the weapons embargo, Credendino reported that the operation is having a "deterrent effect" and weapons are no longer arriving in Libya by sea, at least via international waters. A total of 2,189 hailings, 144 friendly approaches, seven flag enquiries and visits, three inspections and two seizures have been carried out. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)