Stopping people-smugglers

22.6.2012

Question for written answer E-006209/2012
to the Commission
Rule 117
Simon Busuttil (PPE)

Resolution 1872 (2012) entitled ‘Lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea: who is responsible?’ adopted by the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) gives an account of the role of people-smugglers in organising dangerous boat crossings in the Mediterranean.

A testimony included in the resolution states that during the organisation of one boat trip fifty men, twenty women and two babies were accompanied to the boat by Libyan militia. They were boarded by the smugglers, who removed most of their water and food supplies in order to get more people into the boat.

1. With regard to the role that people-smugglers play in organising these dangerous boat trips, in putting the lives of many asylum‑seekers in manifest danger and in running irregular migration into Europe, what steps can the European Union take, in the Commission’s view, to stop the activities of people-smugglers and to bring the smugglers to justice?

2. How is the Commission addressing the problem of people-smugglers in its negotiations with the new Libyan authorities?

OJ C 262 E, 11/09/2013