Paddy Ashdown has launched an extraordinary attack on the British government, accusing ministers of adopting a policy to 'drown more refugees in the Mediterranean'.

The former Lib Dem leader condemned the decision to end support for rescue operations for illegal immigrants because it might encourage more people to attempt the dangerous crossing from Africa.

He called for the SAS to be sent in to target the people traffickers charging more than £2,000 per person for a place on a rickety boat.

Lord Ashdown condemned the government's refusal to back rescue operations in the Mediterranean, but Home Office minister Lord Bates insisted the human traffickers were to blame for deaths

More than 100,000 have reached Italy since the turn of the year and some 2,000 have died trying, according to the UN refugee body UNHCR.

The Italian mission in the Mediterranean has been wound up after rescuing tens of thousands of people, but Britain insists offering help will act as a 'pull factor' to others to seek refuge in Europe.

The UK government claims there are between 300,000 and 600,000 people in Libya waiting to make a crossing, but the numbers have started to fall.

Why does the Government's policy seem to be to support measures that can have only one result - to drown more refugees in the Mediterranean? Lord Ashdown

But in a short debate in Parliament, Lord Ashdown said ministers were trying to defend 'a completely untenable position'.

He added: 'Why does the Government's policy seem to be to support measures that can have only one result - to drown more refugees in the Mediterranean - rather than a policy whose aim is to lock up more people traffickers?

'Only one has ever been arrested—in Egypt, which is one of the main departure countries.'

He urged the government to deploy the SAS in a targeted mission to root out those responsible for the trade in vulnerable people.

'A few years ago when Her Majesty's Government used all the resources at their disposal, including Special Forces, to rid the Caribbean of drug smugglers.

'Why can we not do the same thing to rid the Mediterranean of people traffickers?'

The Home Office insisted that the government is working closely with other EU member states to address the 'distressing situation'.

The Italian government has stopped search and rescue operations after thousands were picked up this year, including 600 would-be immigrants rescued from the Mediterranean sea in a single weekend in September

Home Office minister Lord Bates said: 'We need to tackle the traffickers who are exploiting this situation by placing vulnerable people in unseaworthy vessels and setting them afloat in exchange for €2,000 or €3,000 a head.

'That is absolutely morally outrageous. They are responsible for the deaths.'

Home Secretary Theresa May is due to meet Italian ministers to discuss the crisis, and will consider requests for more help from Britain.

Frontex - the European Union agency dealing with border security – is using drones to track attempts to cross the sea from above.

Last month the Foreign Office ruled out search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, claiming that they 'create an unintended 'pull factor', encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths'

But the stance was repeatedly criticised in the Lords yesterday.

Crossbencher Lord Hylton said: 'It has become clearly unacceptable to allow some people to drown to deter others from risking their lives at sea.'

And shadow Home Office minister Baroness Smith of Basildon asked Lord Bates: 'Do you really believe this needless loss of life - people drowning in the Mediterranean - will ever act as a deterrent to the criminals drowning people or those desperate enough to get into small boats?'

In March this year around 2,128 migrants were rescued off the coast of Italy in two different operations conducted by the Italian Navy

Lord Bates told peers: 'There are very early figures but there is some evidence from Frontex in a brief that I have received in the last 48 hours that there is a turning in the trend here.

'Remember it went up from 70,000 a year to 150,000, deaths went up from 700 to 3,000. We think that there are between 300,000 and 600,000 in Libya waiting to make the crossing.

'The indications are that in October the numbers fell. There could be other reasons for that, we are following it very closely, but this is something we take very, very seriously indeed.'