EU to board unflagged vessels in migrant push

Brussels (AFP) - EU nations will get powers to board unflagged boats in the Mediterranean in order to stop people traffickers following the worst migrant shipwreck in years, diplomats said Wednesday.

They will also boost intelligence sharing from next month after European Union leaders vowed at an emergency summit in April to take urgent steps to curb the flood of dangerously overcrowded migrant boats, they said.

But they will not yet be able to go as far as destroying the boats before they leave the Libyan coast, despite that being one of the options agreed on at the summit, the European diplomats added.

Outlines of the European operation to "smash the business model" of the traffickers were sketched during talks between EU ambassadors in Brussels this week, European sources told AFP.

If member states agree, their navies could board and search unflagged vessels on the high seas in order to deprive traffickers of boats often bought from fishermen or through shady smuggling networks, they said.

The Europeans believe they can act without a UN mandate against ships that fly no flag, which enjoy less protection under the law of the sea, said the diplomats.

They will also boost systematic intelligence sharing, an issue that has often been a problem between EU nations that despite their economic and political links will jealously guard intelligence.

Information gathered from military surveillance planes will complement that collected from telephone eavesdropping and information provided by ships belonging to the EU border agency Frontex, a diplomat said.

"We must do more to trace the networks: what are the names of the people, who speaks to whom, find the photos," a diplomat said.

However the UN must first give the green light for searches of flagged vessels and to enter Libyan territorial waters to destroy the boats -- something the EU is seeking, they said.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini is due to present her bloc's military options before the UN Security Council next Monday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has rejected any "military solution" to a problem that took the world spotlight after the worst migrant shipwreck occurred in the Mediterranean last month with the drowning of an estimated 750 people.

It triggered an April 23 emergency summit of EU leaders who tasked Mogherini to "propose action in order to capture and destroy the smugglers' vessels before they can be used."

But among the 28 EU member states, there are reservations on whether to launch air strikes or commando operations in Libyan ports that could result in civilian deaths or imperil negotiations aimed at forging a national unity government out of the chaos in Libya.