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Deutsche Welle (27 March 2020)

The EU has agreed to launch a new mission in the Mediterranean to monitor the UN-mandated arms embargo on Libya. NGOs are critical of the bloc's policy on fighting human smuggling and arms trafficking.

"The number of deaths is going to increase in the long term, unfortunately," says Frederic Penard, the head of operations at SOS Mediterranee, which describes itself as "a maritime and humanitarian organization for the rescue of life" in the Mediterranean. He told DW that there were hardly any ships willing to rescue people in distress off the coast of Libya. Yet, he pointed out, Operation Sophia, formally known as the European Union Naval Force Mediterranean (EU NAVFOR Med), had saved tens of thousands of lives — the figure given oscillates between 43,000 and 50,000 — between 2015 and 2018. Most of them were people who had tried to make their way from Libya to Italy or Malta in unstable rubber dinghies or unseaworthy wooden boats and who were rescued after getting into distress. Operation Sophia was named after a girl who was born on a German frigate that had rescued her mother.

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