European plans for a military campaign to smash the migrant trafficking networks operating out of Libya include options for ground forces on Libyan territory.
The 19-page strategy paper for the mission, obtained by the Guardian , focuses on an air and naval campaign in the Mediterranean and in Libyan territorial waters, subject to United Nations blessing.
Destroying traffickers’ assetsBut it adds that ground operations in Libya may also be needed to destroy the traffickers’ vessels and assets, such as fuel dumps.
“A presence ashore might be envisaged if agreement was reached with relevant authorities,” says the paper which is expected to be endorsed by European Union Foreign Ministers on Monday before the mission is ordered by heads of government at an EU summit in June.
Senior diplomats and officials in Brussels, speaking privately about the military planning, have consistently stressed that there would be no prospect of “boots on the ground” in Libya. But it is clear from the detailed planning document that they might be needed and are not being ruled out.
The campaign’s aim is defined as “to disrupt the business model of the smugglers, achieved by undertaking systematic efforts to identify, seize/capture, and destroy vessels and assets before they are used by smugglers. The operation will need to be phased in and will be heavily dependent on intelligence.
The planning document admits that the campaign could result in innocent people being killed: “Boarding operations against smugglers in the presence of migrants has a high risk of collateral damage including the loss of life.” The military campaign planning has been ordered because of the influx of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East across the Mediterranean from Libya, with the death toll this year alone already nudging an estimated 2,000.
— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015
