Written question asked by Rosie Duffield (Labour) on Thursday, 18 April 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 24 April 2019. It was answered by Alan Duncan (Conservative) on Monday, 29 April 2019 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Mediterranean Sea: Rescue Services

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the stranding of the Alan Kurdi rescue vessel, what steps the Government is taking to help humanitarian missions on the Mediterranean sea as a result of migration from Libya.

Answer: The UK Government welcomes the safe disembarkation of the 64 rescued migrants on board the German Non-Governmental Organisation-operated search and rescue vessel Alan Kurdi in Malta. This followed an EU-brokered agreement for the migrants to be relocated to four EU member states. We are concerned about the continued impasse over search and rescue in the central Mediterranean that has affected this and other recent search and rescue operations, in the absence of predictable disembarkation arrangements. The UK continues to work with our EU partners and internationally to find a solution and is committed to pursuing a whole of route approach, including upstream interventions, to tackle the causes of irregular migration across the Mediterranean.

Secondary information