Britain’s role in helping to rescue thousands of migrants trying to enter Europe across the Mediterranean will not end with the scheduled withdrawal of the Royal Navy’s flagship, HMS Bulwark, from the operation, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The department confirmed the warship, which carries two helicopters and has saved more than 2,900 lives since its temporary deployment on 4 May, is due to leave at the beginning of July after an agreement that it should only be involved for 60 days.
But an MoD spokesman clarified that the possible withdrawal of Bulwark did not mean that Britain was withdrawing from the European Union’s search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
He said: “HMS Bulwark continues to play a full and active role in dealing with the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean and there are no plans for the UK to withdraw from this mission. While Bulwark was deployed for an initial 60-day period ending next month, we are currently considering follow-on options but the plan is for a seamless transition of assets to continue the UK military support to the operation.”
The temporary deployment of HMS Bulwark was announced by David Cameron on 23 April – in the middle of the general election campaign – at an EU summit on the migrant crisis.
Cameron has repeatedly cited HMS Bulwark’s “key role in saving lives” in the Mediterranean as the major part of Britain’s contribution to dealing with what the UN has described as the biggest refugee crisis since the second world war.
Labour MP Keith Vaz, the former chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, who held a Commons debate on the issue on Tuesday, said the EU could not afford to offer temporary or piecemeal solutions to the refugee crisis.
“The number of desperate migrants attempting to reach Europe is not likely to decrease within the next three weeks when HMS Bulwark is due to stop supporting rescue missions,” he said. “HMS Bulwark has done a magnificent job so far. It would be a tragedy to bring this great work to an end.”
He added: “We must offer continuous support on an international scale if we are to make any significant and measurable improvements to the situation in the Mediterranean.”
The role of HMS Bulwark was also praised by Save the Children, whose chief executive, Justin Forsyth, said Britain had shown real leadership in helping to restart rescue operations. He said: “The navy is doing incredible work, rescuing nearly 3,000 people in the last weeks alone. Without the rescue boats, children would potentially have drowned off the shores of Europe. We ask that people all over Britain join us in a heartfelt thank you to the crew of HMS Bulwark for their life-saving work.”
But the charity went on to appeal to the British government to take its “fair share” of 5,000 unaccompanied children who are among the 54,000 people who have landed in Italy so far this year.
A Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed that Britain would not take part in a proposed relocation distribution across the EU over the next two years of 40,000 asylum seekers who have made it across the Mediterranean to Italy and Greece.
“We do not support relocation. We think our approach should be focused on not creating further pull factors for migrants,” she said.
The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, suggested a failure to agree the relocation plan could lead to his country denying landing rights to migrants saved by foreign ships or they could begin granting temporary Schengen residence permits to migrants to allow them to move within Europe. “If the European Council choose solidarity, then good. If it doesn’t we have a plan B ready but that would be a wound inflicted on Europe,” he said.
Arriving in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU interior ministers to discuss the relocation plan, the home secretary, Theresa May, said the Mediterranean migrant crisis was already reaching the British border.
She said: “The crisis in terms of the migrants crossing the Mediterranean is a problem in two ways: first of all, vulnerable lives are being put at risk; but secondly, as we see at Calais and elsewhere, it is putting great pressure on European towns and cities which is even reaching to our borders although we are not part of the borderless Schengen area.
“To deal with the issue in the long term we need to go after the criminal gangs who are plying this terrible, callous trade in human lives. It also means we have to break the link between people getting into the boat and reaching Europe.
“That means returning people to north Africa or to their home country so that they see no merit in this journey. It also means development work in the countries of origin so that these people do not have the insane incentive to try to get into these boats and risk their lives.”
