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The Royal Navy won't actually be sending a warship to fight to smugglers, instead they will be sending the amphibious landing ship RFA Mounts Bay to join an international flotilla of surveillance ships.
Here's what the British defence secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC's Today Programme this morning:
"We're not sending a warship, warships aren't the best kind of ship to rescue smugglers, it's an auxiliary ship with plenty of space, plenty of stores and above all, the helicopter on board. And that will join a German ship a Greek ship, a Turkish ship, an Italian ship and a Canadian ship in trying to bring some order to this part of the Mediterranean and above all trying to save lives."
In practice RFA Mounts Bay will be hanging out in Aegean Sea, the vast stretch of water separating Turkey and Greece.
According to the UN, 800,000 migrants crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece in 2015.
According to Fallon, the Royal Navy's primary mission will be to "pick up a proper picture of the primary smuggling route" and to "break the smuggler's business model." They will do this by passing on intelligence to the Turkish and Greek coastguards.
The reason that the Royal Navy's deployment has been announced today, is because Cameron is attending a summit in Brussels where EU leaders will be trying to persuade Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to take in more migrants.
The Times got hold of a draft document for the summit that shows the steps the EU will take to convince Turkey to help out with the migrant crisis. The document commits all EU to use “all available means” to stop the flow of migrants.
Last week, David Cameron also announced the UK would contribute about €22 million (£17 million) in funding to help France deal with the Jungle in Calais, where thousands of migrants trying to make their way to Britain have set up camp.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that the Royal Navy is being deployed to the Mediterranean in order to stop migrant smugglers.
The Royal Navy won't actually be sending a warship to fight to smugglers, instead they will be sending the amphibious landing ship RFA Mounts Bay to join an international flotilla of surveillance ships.
Here's what the British defence secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC's Today Programme this morning:
"We're not sending a warship, warships aren't the best kind of ship to rescue smugglers, it's an auxiliary ship with plenty of space, plenty of stores and above all, the helicopter on board. And that will join a German ship a Greek ship, a Turkish ship, an Italian ship and a Canadian ship in trying to bring some order to this part of the Mediterranean and above all trying to save lives."
In practice RFA Mounts Bay will be hanging out in Aegean Sea, the vast stretch of water separating Turkey and Greece.
According to the UN, 800,000 migrants crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece in 2015.
According to Fallon, the Royal Navy's primary mission will be to "pick up a proper picture of the primary smuggling route" and to "break the smuggler's business model." They will do this by passing on intelligence to the Turkish and Greek coastguards.
The reason that the Royal Navy's deployment has been announced today, is because Cameron is attending a summit in Brussels where EU leaders will be trying to persuade Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to take in more migrants.
The Times got hold of a draft document for the summit that shows the steps the EU will take to convince Turkey to help out with the migrant crisis. The document commits all EU to use “all available means” to stop the flow of migrants.
Last week, David Cameron also announced the UK would contribute about €22 million (£17 million) in funding to help France deal with the Jungle in Calais, where thousands of migrants trying to make their way to Britain have set up camp.
By Jeremy Wilson.
Culled from Yahoo News.
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