German navy units withdrew from EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia, a European Union led effort to tackle migrant smugglers in the Mediterranean Sea, the German army declared on Wednesday.
The army added that it will no longer send navy units to the Libyan coast, according to the army’s statement.
Bremen-class frigate FGS Augsburg, German navy units, is currently deployed to operation Sophia and will not be replaced by another German navy ship once its deployment ends in early February.
The decision is reportedly the result of Italy’s refusal to allow rescued migrants to be disembarked at its ports.
EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia is the EU naval operation set up to disrupt the business model of migrant smugglers and human traffickers in the Southern Central Mediterranean.
Since its inception in June 2015, the operation has apprehended and transferred 143 suspected smugglers and traffickers to the Italian authorities. The operation has also helped rescue 44,251 lives, according to the European Council.
The operation involves training the Libyan Coastguard and navy, monitor the trainees to ensure the long-term efficiency of this training, and contribute to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya.
Further, since the beginning of the 2011 civil war in Libya, the country has experienced ongoing armed conflict between rival militias and government forces, causing lack of security. Hence, armed groups, criminal gangs, smugglers, and traffickers exploited the situation to control much of the flow of migrants to Libya, the majority of whom live in the detention centers.
Thousands of people from the African continent and beyond continue to cross Africa’s Sahel into Libya and across the Central Mediterranean to Europe, driven by despair they face in their home countries, regardless of the challenges and risks they might face.
