Hundreds of migrants at risk of drowning as weather worsens, warns former Navy chief

Tragedy: a police officer carries the body of Aylan Kurdi off a Turkish beach
Nilufer Demir/Dogan News Agency/AP

Hundreds more migrants will drown in the Mediterranean as the weather worsens unless Libya’s coast is “aggressively” sealed off to stop people smugglers’ boats, a former head of the Navy warned today.

As another British warship, HMS Richmond, was being deployed as part of a naval force in the Med, Lord West stressed that the current strategy was encouraging Syrian refugees and other migrants to risk their lives trying to reach Europe.

“Many more will go to sea and as the weather is deteriorating in the Mediterranean — I’ve been there at this time of year — and starts getting worse, more and more people will die,” he told BBC radio.

Lord West also emphasised that being rescued by British and other naval ships was part of the “package” being sold by people traffickers in northern Africa to desperate refugees and economic migrants.

“They actually say in the Sahel: ‘We will get you to the Libyan coast, we will put you in a boat. When you get beyond territorial seas, these are the numbers you call, you will get picked up by a British warship and taken to Europe’,” the former First Sea Lord and ex- security minister added.

He believes the current EU policy appears a “bit of a mess” and that under international law people picked up in boats in the Mediterranean could be returned to Libya.

“We should be much more aggressive in terms of sealing the coast,” he said, calling for agreements to be reached with officials in Libya for asylum- seekers to be processed onshore.

At least 59 migrants have drowned in recent days trying to reach Greece, including up to 19 children, with the risks being taken by many families highlighted by the deaths of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi and his brother Galip, five, whose bodies were washed up on the tourist beach of Bodrum in Turkey earlier this month.

Lord West issued his warning as criminal proceedings were launched against at least 35 migrants for illegally crossing Hungary’s border with Serbia.

They could face up to three years in jail. Hundreds of migrants remained camped at sealed-off border points between the two countries.

But Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said migrants entering his country would be allowed to pass through to western Europe, confirming that around 150 had entered from Serbia overnight. More migrants were heading for Romania to reach Germany and other EU states, avoiding Hungary.

Meanwhile French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France would launch air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria within weeks and Australia carried out its first targeting of IS in Syria.

David Cameron is expected to seek Commons backing within weeks for the UK’s own air strikes in Syria. Military planners are said to be examining how no-fly zones could be imposed over Syria to set up safe havens.

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