UK to join Nato refugee patrols in Aegean

David Cameron announces Royal Navy role as he prepares to meet European leaders to discuss crisis

The UK military is to join Nato forces intercepting and returning people trying to reach Europe from Turkey, as David Cameron prepares to meet European leaders to discuss the escalating migration crisis.

The prime minister announced that the Royal Navy was deploying the amphibious landing ship RFA Mounts Bay as the first UK contribution to the Nato deployment in the Aegean Sea. The vessel, which carries a Wildcat helicopter, will join naval vessels from Germany, Canada, Turkey and Greece as part of Nato’s first intervention in the migration crisis.

“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. That’s why the UK is providing vital military assets to work with our European partners and support this mission.”

As the EU’s chief immigration policymaker, Dimitris Avramopoulos, predicted some 100,000 migrants and refugees would reach the country this month alone, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist-led government demanded Europe share the burden of handling the crisis. About 3,000 people are landing on Greek shores from Turkey every day, officials say.

Read the full article on The Guardian website