United Nations, United States: EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday appealed for international backing for Europe’s efforts to confront the Mediterranean migrant crisis and save lives.
Mogherini spoke at the UN Security Council as it prepares to endorse a controversial European Union plan that provides for military action to stem the tide of refugees making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.
“Our first priority is to save lives and prevent further loss of lives at sea,” Mogherini told the 15-member council.
“We cannot do it alone. This has to be a common global effort,” she said.
“That is why we count on your support to save lives and dismantle criminal organizations that are exploiting people’s desperation.”
With more than 1,800 dead this year alone, 2015 is shaping up as the deadliest ever for refugees seeking to reach Europe through the Mediterranean.
Describing the migrant flow as an “unprecedented situation,” Mogherini said: “We need an exceptional response.”
Europe’s chief diplomat described the migrant crisis as “not only a humanitarian emergency but also a security crisis” involving smugglers who have seized on the chaos in Libya to set up operations.
The most controversial component of the EU plan would involve military action to destroy the boats used by migrant smugglers.
Security Council members Britain, France, Lithuania and Spain are working with Italy on a draft resolution that would allow for the “use of all necessary means to seize and dispose of the vessels, including the destruction and rendering inoperable and unusable,” diplomats said.
Russia has, however, poured cold water over the proposal to destroy vessels, arguing that smugglers rent boats from owners who are often unaware of the scheme.
“It’s just going too far,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said last week.
The resolution would be drafted under Chapter 7 of the UN charter which allows the use of force and would give an EU maritime force the right to act in Libyan territorial waters.
Libya has expressed reservations, however, and it remains an open question whether the rival governments ruling the country would give their consent.
In addressing the council, Mogherini offered assurances that a naval force would not seek to undermine Libya’s stability.
“We don’t and we won’t act against anyone but in partnership with all,” she said.
Human rights and aid organizations have also come out against military action, arguing that attention should focus instead on broadening legal avenues for migrants to reach Europe.
At a summit last month, 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.
The migrant issue is hugely sensitive as the EU agonizes over how best to respond, with euroskeptic and nationalist parties capitalizing on public unease over increased immigration.
On Wednesday, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker is due to present a new migration policy plan which includes a provision that distributes the migrant burden more fairly across the bloc.
Diplomatic sources said Juncker may also set at 20,000 an EU-wide quota for refugees despite Britain insisting this should be done only on a voluntary basis.
For some European governments, taking in more people only makes the problem worse, arguing that it attracts other migrants into risking their lives on the risky Mediterranean crossing.
“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.
Germany, however, has argued for a humanitarian response to the disaster by spreading the refugees more fairly among member states.
In terms of the military response, diplomatic sources say current thinking would allow EU navies to board unflagged vessels 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.
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EU urges UN to back effort to save migrant lives
EU urges UN to back effort to save migrant lives
From the sky, NGO searches for west African migrant boats in distress
Every hour is crucial when searching for distressed west African migrant boats in the Atlantic, where the long route and harsh weather easily spell disaster, a nonprofit that conducts aerial surveillance told AFP during a recent mission.
AFP rode along with the organisation Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI) as it raced to locate several missing pirogues -- long, rickety canoes -- that had left The Gambia but never showed up at their final destination.
The mission: search an area larger than Switzerland, from hundreds of metres (yards) in the air, with an aim of rendering aid before it is too late.
"People could be dead or dying from dehydration, heat stroke or any other conditions," pilot Omar El Manfalouty told AFP.
Migrants departing from west Africa and travelling up the Atlantic are usually trying to reach Europe via the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.
The Spanish archipelago is the jumping off point for their continued journey onward to the European continent.
With many recent departures taking place from further south in The Gambia and Guinea, migrants are now spending longer at sea and facing more hardships.
More than 3,000 migrants died in 2025 while attempting to reach Spain clandestinely, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras.
While HPI has operated since 2016 in the central Mediterranean, it is a relative newcomer to the Atlantic.
In the Mediterranean, it has already helped spot more than 1,000 boats, alerting international NGO rescue ships which then go and help.
AFP flew with HPI on its third mission in nine months in the Atlantic, riding for several days in the NGO's Beechcraft Baron 58 nicknamed "Seabird".
- 'Vast area' -
"The Atlantic Ocean is huge. It's a vast area and it's impossible to cover it in its entirety," said El Manfalouty.
"We brought our longest-range aircraft here and we're focusing on the area which other actors cannot reach, approximately between 300 and 500 nautical miles from the Canaries," he said.
Once HPI spots a vessel, it sends an alert for emergency response to nearby merchant ships so that they can provide immediate support. From there, Spain's maritime safety and rescue authority, Salvamento Maritimo, takes over.
"Having an aircraft in the area to support from the air with 10 times the speed (of boats) makes a lot of sense," said Samira, the mission's tactical coordinator who asked not to use her last name due to threats the NGO receives in several European countries.
One morning in January the crew received an alert from another NGO that a boat which had departed The Gambia carrying 103 people, including nine women and three children, was missing. HPI quickly mobilised.
The trip from The Gambia to the Canaries is 1,000 nautical miles, meaning there is a vast region where the boat might be, Samira said. On her tablet, she plotted out several routes.
- Eyes glued -
Once the plane reached the patrol zone, the aircraft descended below cloud cover and followed straight, parallel trajectories. Three crew members kept their eyes glued to the windows for the pirogue.
While in the air they received word of another vessel: a second boat, which left The Gambia seven days earlier with 137 people on board.
With the strong winds and swell, "the boats may have drifted", Samira said.
Boats have previously drifted so far as to reach the Caribbean or South America without any survivors.
After three consecutive days of flying, the crew had covered nearly 3,800 nautical miles, but there was still no trace of the two boats.
As of publication, neither of the vessels had reached the Canaries.
Near a migrant reception centre in Las Palmas, a major city in the Canary Islands, Ousmane Ly, a recently arrived 25-year-old Senegalese man, gazed at the beach. Other migrants, also from Senegal, were taking advantage of the sunny day to take photos.
The joy of having made it outweighed the difficulty some were having walking after days crammed into a pirogue.
Their hands, arms and legs bore wounds caused by the salt water.
He recounted how once they boarded the pirogue, he and the other passengers were covered with a tarpaulin: "I closed my eyes and thought of my mother," he said.
The tarpaulin -- used to protect them from the sun during the day and cold at night -- was removed only 10 days later, when the boat was rescued by Salvamento Maritimo.
There were 108 people on board, two of whom were found dead during the rescue.
AFP rode along with the organisation Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI) as it raced to locate several missing pirogues -- long, rickety canoes -- that had left The Gambia but never showed up at their final destination.
The mission: search an area larger than Switzerland, from hundreds of metres (yards) in the air, with an aim of rendering aid before it is too late.
"People could be dead or dying from dehydration, heat stroke or any other conditions," pilot Omar El Manfalouty told AFP.
Migrants departing from west Africa and travelling up the Atlantic are usually trying to reach Europe via the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.
The Spanish archipelago is the jumping off point for their continued journey onward to the European continent.
With many recent departures taking place from further south in The Gambia and Guinea, migrants are now spending longer at sea and facing more hardships.
More than 3,000 migrants died in 2025 while attempting to reach Spain clandestinely, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras.
While HPI has operated since 2016 in the central Mediterranean, it is a relative newcomer to the Atlantic.
In the Mediterranean, it has already helped spot more than 1,000 boats, alerting international NGO rescue ships which then go and help.
AFP flew with HPI on its third mission in nine months in the Atlantic, riding for several days in the NGO's Beechcraft Baron 58 nicknamed "Seabird".
- 'Vast area' -
"The Atlantic Ocean is huge. It's a vast area and it's impossible to cover it in its entirety," said El Manfalouty.
"We brought our longest-range aircraft here and we're focusing on the area which other actors cannot reach, approximately between 300 and 500 nautical miles from the Canaries," he said.
Once HPI spots a vessel, it sends an alert for emergency response to nearby merchant ships so that they can provide immediate support. From there, Spain's maritime safety and rescue authority, Salvamento Maritimo, takes over.
"Having an aircraft in the area to support from the air with 10 times the speed (of boats) makes a lot of sense," said Samira, the mission's tactical coordinator who asked not to use her last name due to threats the NGO receives in several European countries.
One morning in January the crew received an alert from another NGO that a boat which had departed The Gambia carrying 103 people, including nine women and three children, was missing. HPI quickly mobilised.
The trip from The Gambia to the Canaries is 1,000 nautical miles, meaning there is a vast region where the boat might be, Samira said. On her tablet, she plotted out several routes.
- Eyes glued -
Once the plane reached the patrol zone, the aircraft descended below cloud cover and followed straight, parallel trajectories. Three crew members kept their eyes glued to the windows for the pirogue.
While in the air they received word of another vessel: a second boat, which left The Gambia seven days earlier with 137 people on board.
With the strong winds and swell, "the boats may have drifted", Samira said.
Boats have previously drifted so far as to reach the Caribbean or South America without any survivors.
After three consecutive days of flying, the crew had covered nearly 3,800 nautical miles, but there was still no trace of the two boats.
As of publication, neither of the vessels had reached the Canaries.
Near a migrant reception centre in Las Palmas, a major city in the Canary Islands, Ousmane Ly, a recently arrived 25-year-old Senegalese man, gazed at the beach. Other migrants, also from Senegal, were taking advantage of the sunny day to take photos.
The joy of having made it outweighed the difficulty some were having walking after days crammed into a pirogue.
Their hands, arms and legs bore wounds caused by the salt water.
He recounted how once they boarded the pirogue, he and the other passengers were covered with a tarpaulin: "I closed my eyes and thought of my mother," he said.
The tarpaulin -- used to protect them from the sun during the day and cold at night -- was removed only 10 days later, when the boat was rescued by Salvamento Maritimo.
There were 108 people on board, two of whom were found dead during the rescue.
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