EU's Mogherini seeks UN backing on migrant crisis

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini will call on the UN Security Council Monday to approve military action against people smugglers as the bloc splits over a new migrant quota plan.

Mogherini has led from the front to goad the European Union into action after more than 5,000 refugees drowned off the 28-nation bloc's southern shores in the past 18 months as they seek safety and a new life in Europe.

"I am ashamed that Europe only wakes up when it is confronted by the dead," Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister, said recently.

Mogherini is due to address the Security Council in New York at 1400 GMT in person, taking a message that EU leaders decided on at an emergency summit on the migrant tragedies last month.
At the summit, EU leaders agreed they had to act in face of the mounting death toll, committing more money for search and rescue missions and to extend their scope.

They also tasked Mogherini with drawing up a list of military options, including action "to capture and destroy the smugglers' vessels," on the key condition it should be in accordance with international law.

Normally that would require an agreement with the government concerned, but Libya is in chaos as rival factions fight for control of the oil-rich state, meaning the EU must obtain UN approval to establish a clear legal basis for any military operation.

- EU agonises over migrants -

But Mogherini faces a tough task. UN chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the EU's increased migrant efforts -- but cautioned that "there is no military solution to the tragedy in the Mediterranean."

"What is crucial is to have a global approach that takes into account the roots of the problem, the security and human rights of migrants and refugees such as having immigration channels that are legal and regular," Ban told La Stampa last month.
"The United Nations is ready to work with our European partners to this end," he added.

The migrant issue is hugely sensitive as the EU agonises over how best to respond, with eurosceptic and nationalist parties capitalising on public unease over increased immigration.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker is due to present Wednesday a new migration policy plan which includes a provision that distributes the migrant burden more fairly across the bloc -- dubbed "mad" by Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban.

"The EU needs a permanent system for sharing the responsibility for large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers among member states," said a draft of the Commission proposal seen by AFP.

Diplomatic sources said Juncker may also fix at 20,000 an initial EU-wide quota for refugees despite Britain insisting this should be done only on a voluntary basis after opposing a figure of 5,000 mooted at last month's summit.
"Juncker wants a required quota of refugees but this is practically seen as a declaration of war" by certain member states, one top European official said.

For some member states, taking in more people only makes the problem worse, arguing that it attracts other migrants into risking their lives on the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

For others such as Germany, there has to be a humanitarian response to the disaster and the best way to ease the EU problem is to spread the refugees more fairly among member states.

- Limited military action -

In terms of the military response, diplomatic sources say current thinking would allow EU navies to board unflagged boats in international waters in the Mediterranean to stop people traffickers, but they would not intervene before they left the Libyan coast, as the summit had suggested.

The Europeans believe they can act without a UN mandate against ships that fly no flag, which enjoy less protection under the law of the sea. But they would need the UN's approval to go into Libyan territorial waters.
Russia, which has a veto as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is strongly opposed to any such military action.

"We cannot support going so far as destroying ships without a court order or without the consent of the country whose flag the vessel flies," Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian ambassador to the EU, warned.