Aircraft
EU Creates Naval Task Force as Refugee Crisis Worsens
Italian aircraft carrier will lead efforts to rescue, and stem the tide of, migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
A UK Royal Marines amphibious landing craft approaches a heavily overladen migrant boat in the southern Mediterranean last month. The  British landing platform dock warship HMS Bulwark is in the background. (Photo: MoD Crown Copyright 2015)
A UK Royal Marines amphibious landing craft approaches a heavily overladen migrant boat in the southern Mediterranean last month. The British landing platform dock warship HMS Bulwark is in the background. (Photo: MoD Crown Copyright 2015)

The European Union (EU) this week established a naval task force to try to stem the massive migration of refugees and economic migrants across the Mediterranean. With a headquarters in Rome, Eunavfor Med will be led by the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour and comprise eight vessels and 12 aircraft from 14 EU states. But although defense officials in Brussels have discussed destroying fuel dumps in Libya and mounting commando raids there to destroy boats before they are loaded with migrants, such action has been deferred to “a later stage of the mission,” they said.