British prime minister David Cameron confirmed that the UK will provide "vital military assets" to help a Nato mission tackling people smugglers in the Aegean as European leaders gathered to discuss the migrant crisis.
The announcement came as at least 18 people, attempting to reach Greece, drowned after their boat sank off the Turkish coast yesterday. The Turkish coast guard, using speedboats and a helicopter, rescued 15 people and recovered 18 bodies in the Aegean.
Mr Cameron, who will join counterparts from European Union nations and Turkey at a summit in Brussels, announced that the Royal Navy was deploying amphibious landing ship RFA Mounts Bay as part of the Nato deployment.
The ship is expected to start operations in the coming days, spotting smugglers taking migrants to Greece and passing the information to the Turkish coast guard.
Sea force
Two Border Force cutters will also join the operation, along with a third boat, the chartered civilian vessel VOS
Grace
, which is already in the Aegean.
RFA Mounts Bay will join naval vessels from Germany, Canada, Turkey and Greece as part of Nato's first intervention in the migrant crisis.
"This migration crisis is the greatest challenge facing Europe today," Mr Cameron said. "Britain has not faced anywhere near the scale of migrants coming to Europe as other countries because we are out of Schengen and retain control of our borders.
“But where we can help, we should,” he said. “And we’ve got to break the business model of the criminal smugglers and stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous journey.
“That’s why this Nato mission is so important. It’s an opportunity to stop the smugglers and send out a clear message to migrants contemplating journeys to Europe that they will be turned back.
Downing Street said that at the EU summit Mr Cameron will call for work on breaking the link between people getting on a boat and being able to settle in Europe by “smashing” trafficking gangs and increasing the rate at which illegal migrants are sent back. – (PA)