Germany suspends participation in Operation Sophia
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Germany is suspending participation in Operation Sophia, the EU naval deployment to counter human trafficking across the Mediterranean, as a result of hardening attitudes towards refugees disembarking in Italy, according to information received by dpa on Tuesday.
Germany will not dispatch any naval vessel to replace the frigate Augsburg off the Libyan coast early next month, the country’s most senior military officer, Bundeswehr Inspector General Eberhard Zorn, told members of the parliamentary Defence and Foreign Affairs committees.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini reacted sharply. “Operation Sophia’s mandate was simply to land all the migrants in Italy,” he said.
Some 50,000 people had arrived in Italy as a result of the operation, Salvini said. “If someone withdraws, that’s certainly not our problem.”
The Augsburg was to have been relieved by the supply vessel Berlin, which will be held in a state of readiness and could be in the Mediterranean within a fortnight, if the decision is reversed.
Whereas Operation Sophia was launched in 2015 to apprehend people smugglers, in practice it has largely been rescuing refugees from unseaworthy craft amid uncertainty about where to land them. According to the information received by dpa, the Italian government’s reluctance to allow the refugees to disembark is behind the decision.
The operation is also involved in training the Libyan coast guard and enforcing a weapons embargo on the conflict-ridden north African country.
German politicians from opposition parties were critical.
Stefan Liebich, foreign affairs spokesman for the hard-left Die Linke party, described the situation as a tragedy. “For as long as Sophia is not replaced by a civilian operation, even more people will drown,” he told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Thousands of migrants embark every year on small boats that are barely seaworthy in an attempt to make the crossing to southern Europe. This has led to the naval vessels rescuing people from sinking boats.
The Bundeswehr reports that Operation Sophia has led to the arrest by the Italian authorities of more than 140 people suspected of people smuggling, since its start. In addition, more than 400 boats used by the smugglers have been destroyed.
