DHAKA: EU leaders gathering in Brussels on Thursday will consider launching a military operation against human traffickers in Libya, in a bold effort to halt the deadly flow of refugees trying to reach Europe by sea.

As survivors laid bare the full horror of last weekend’s catastrophic shipwreck near Libya, a draft statement for the summit seen by the media committed leaders to ‘undertake systematic efforts to identify, capture and destroy vessels before they are used by traffickers’, reports The Straits Times.

The EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini ‘is invited to immediately begin preparations for a possible security and defense policy operation to this effect, in accordance with international law’, the draft added.

A diplomatic source said EU members were preparing to approve the statement, reflecting the union’s readiness to take more decisive action against people smugglers, who pack rickety boats to overflowing with people fleeing conflict and hardship in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi on Monday evoked the possibility of ‘targeted interventions’ against the Libya-based smugglers that would fall short of a full military intervention.

BDST: 1307 HRS, APR 23, 2015
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