Mediterranean Sea: Refugees

(asked on 25th April 2016) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the country of origin was of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa who were intercepted by (a) NATO (b) EU and (c) UK maritime operations in each of the last two years.


Answered by
Penny Mordaunt Portrait
Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This question was answered on 28th April 2016

NATO is not conducting any operations in the South Central Mediterranean and has therefore not rescued any people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa.

The main countries of origin of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa and rescued by EU and UK maritime operations are the following:

Algeria

Cameroon

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Ghana

Gambia

Guinea

Ivory Coast

Mali

Morocco

Nigeria

Senegal

Somalia

Sudan

The only UK maritime operation over the last two years in the Central Mediterranean was conducted in May and June 2015, where HMS BULWARK rescued 4,747 persons from the following nationalities:

Benin

Burkina Faso

Cameroon

Chad

Ethiopia

Eretria

The Gambia

Ghana

Guinea

Ivory Coast

Kenya

Libya

Mali

Morocco

Nigeria

Pakistan

Senegal

Sudan

We do not centrally hold information on the nationalities of persons rescued by NATO or EU operations in the Central Mediterranean. The FRONTEX website does have information about numbers and nationalities of migrants attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean from North Africa.

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