The government has announced further details of a British law enforcement taskforce it says will tackle the people-smuggling gangs blamed for the migration crisis in the Mediterranean.

The 90-strong team, involving officers from the National Crime Agency, UK Border Force, immigration enforcement staff and the Crown Prosecution Service, will be responsible for pursuing and disrupting the operations of people smugglers paid by desperate migrants hoping to reach Europe.

Some of the officers will be based with Europol in Sicily and The Hague, with the rest on standby in the UK ready to deploy to the region when required, Downing Street said.

The team is expected to work with countries in the Horn of Africa and along the smugglers’ route to strengthen the capabilities of the authorities there to deal with the problem.

A Number 10 spokesman said: “We have got to do more to break the link between getting on a boat in the Med and getting settlement in Europe. Otherwise these vast numbers will just keep on coming. That’s why the government is setting up a dedicated law enforcement team to tackle organised immigration crime in the Med region.

“Around 90 officers will be deployed in the UK, the Mediterranean and Africa to pursue and disrupt these organised crime groups profiting from the people-smuggling trade. They will exploit every opportunity at source, in transit countries and in Europe to smash the gangs’ criminal operations and better protect the UK from this threat.”

Details of the taskforce were announced as it emerged that the job of HMS Enterprise, the Royal Navy’s replacement for HMS Bulwark on duty in the Mediterranean, will not be to rescue migrants but a military mission to “go after the human smugglers and traffickers”.

Defence sources said Enterprise, a oceanographic survey ship a fifth the size of Bulwark, would not be part of Operation Triton, the EU search and rescue effort that has plucked thousands of migrants out of the sea from boats trying to make the crossing from Libya.

The ship will come under the command of a separate EU naval force and charged with a mission to identify, capture and dispose of boats used or suspected of being used by smugglers. It will be one of eight vessels, including two submarines, in the force led by the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour.

The EU summit later this week will be asked to approve a timetable for the move from the first, intelligence-gathering, phase of the operation to the second phase of search and seizure of smugglers’ boats.

The chancellor, George Osborne, told MPs last Wednesday that Britain would continue to “play its full part in the search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean” when Labour challenged him over Bulwark’s replacement.

The deployment of Enterprise was announced quietly over the weekend.



Bulwark, which has saved more than 3,000 lives since it joined the search and rescue operation at the beginning of May, is a 19,500-tonne assault ship and landing dock with a crew of 325.

Enterprise is a 3,700-ton vessel with a crew of 60 to 70 and capable of carrying only 120 people. The MoD anticipates that she will be involved in the EU operation against the smugglers until the autumn.

Defence sources say that the new EU naval force will have “a certain remit” to respond to Italian requests to take part in search and rescue operations, but that Enterprise would not take part in “proactive” searches and would be involved in rescue only if she was the best placed vessel in the area.

The ship will also be under the general maritime duty to respond to any vessel in distress.

A British Merlin helicopter will still be part of Operation Triton, and two small Border Force or HMRC cutters will take part in the operations of the EU’s border agency, Frontex.

“HMS Enterprise is well suited to the next stage of the EU’s operation, which aims to go after the criminal gangs and smugglers,” said an MoD spokesman.

“The ship will contribute to the broad maritime capabilities desired by the Italian operational commander and will assist in the understanding and picture-building of how the operation will go on to seize and disrupt the assets of smugglers.”

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said that as a multi-role survey ship, Enterprise was well placed to “provide important assistance as we now move into this next stage”.



The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called for an urgent clarification of the new British role in the Mediterranean. “Last week George Osborne said that taking people out of the sea and preventing them from drowning was essential for a humanitarian nation. Those words seem to ring hollow when the UK government is now pulling back from full participation in search and rescue,” she said.

She said David Cameron should “urgently clarify the UK’s new role and ensure capability in search and rescue isn’t being hindered by the decisions of our government”.

“We should be doing more, not less to stop people drowning in the Mediterranean,” she added.