‘British navy to crack down on migrant traders’

The UK navy is set to deploy 200 Royal Marines to the Mediterranean to help “smash” migrant traffickers, says report.

The move, which would see the UK spearhead a multinational operation off the coast of North Africa, comes amid reports that ISIL terrorist associates are using the refugee crisis in the region to smuggle militants into Britain and Europe.

The UK’s leading role in the mission was described as the “quid pro quo” for PM David Cameron’s insistence that Britain would not accept migrants fleeing Libya for Europe, the Sunday Express reported.

Many of the migrants are genuine asylum seekers fleeing war zones, but thousands of others are would-be economic migrants.

Now writer and journalist Aly el-Kebbany says, “The Western countries in general and Britain in particular have to realize and know that what is happening in North Africa and the Arab countries is due to the interference in the area. So it was the Europeans and Americans or under the American banner, who went and bombarded Libya and created the chaos the Libyan people are living in now.”

“So when some civilians are trying to escape and save their lives from destruction and death and suffer during their escape from Libya to Europe and then find the gates of the European countries closed in their face that is very unfair and it’s against the human rights and against the Charter of the United Nations which force countries to accept political refugees and refugees where there are a civil war or war in their countries,” Kebbany told Press TV’s UK Desk on Sunday.

“So Europe has to admit the responsibility and have to accept those refugees until the situation in their countries is better even if it was on a temporary basis,” he added.

Two weeks ago the Sunday Express revealed pressure had been put on Downing Street by Italy, France and Germany to accept up to 25,000 North African migrants, as the humanitarian crisis reaches epidemic proportions.

The new proposals will instead see Britain provide a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, thought to be RFA Lyme Bay, to form the core of the front.

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