NATO has sent a patrol of three warships to intercept refugees trying to reach Greece by sea and send them back to Turkey, as Europe steps up efforts to contain the refugee crisis.
The mission was agreed upon and ordered to the Aegean Sea in less than 24 hours, an extremely rapid move for the alliance. NATO normally spends months deliberating over decisions and agreeing details.
The German-led patrol is to be backed by planes that can monitor the flow of people attempting illegal crossings. Greece and Turkey have agreed that any refugees they intercept would be sent back.
“They will not be taken back to Greece. The aim of the group is to have them taken back to Turkey. That is the crucial difference,” British Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon said. “This is the first time we have seen a group tasked with returning migrants. That has not happened before. So that is quite an important development.”
The UK does not have any ships involved, but is looking at how it could contribute, he said after a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels.
“It could definitely help save lives in the Aegean and it could help break the criminal gangs that are trafficking migrants from Turkey into Europe,” he added.
NATO and the EU have been keen to avoid any impression that they see refugees as a threat, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg initially denied that the ships would try to stop people from crossing into Europe.
“This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats,” Stoltenberg said.
German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen had already indicated she favored a far more robust approach and had secured Ankara’s permission to send some refugees back to Turkey, Deutsche Welle reported.
The ships are to be ordered to the Aegean to begin the mission “without delay,” and were expected to be in place yesterday, even though the details of their role are still being filled in, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove said on Thursday.
The NATO flotilla is to be led by the German navy’s flagship, the Bonn, supported by Turkey’s frigate Barbaros and the Canadian frigate Fredericton.
“This mission has literally come together in about the last 20 hours,” Breedlove told journalists. “I have been tasked now to go back and define the mission, define the rules of engagement, define all of what we call special operation instructions, all of the things that will lay out what we are going to do.”
The International Organization for Migration earlier this week said 409 people had died so far this year trying to cross the sea to Europe, and that about 10 times as many refugees and migrants crossed in the first six weeks of this year as in the same period last year.
NATO involvement is an admission that the EU is struggling to cope with the numbers traveling by sea.
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