David Cameron pledges to 'do more' to help tackle human trafficking

David Cameron has pledged that Britain "can do more" to help tackle the human trafficking crisis in the Mediterranean, and confirmed that he would break off from election campaigning to attend an emergency leaders' summit in Brussels this week.

The UK prime minister said he hoped the meeting would prompt an EU-wide agreement on combating the criminal gangs that have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of migrants crossing the sea to Europe from Libya.

"I think what we need is a comprehensive plan that does involve elements of search and rescue but, crucially, we have got to do more to deal with the problems in the countries from which these people are coming," Mr Cameron said on Monday. "And we have got to crack down on the terrible traffickers and people smugglers who are at the heart of this problem. Britain can do more and lend a hand, and in that spirit I will be going to the European Council meeting on Thursday."

Up to 1m Syrians and sub-Saharan migrants were waiting in Libya to cross to Europe, an Italian official said on Monday.

The admission from Mr Cameron that further action is needed comes against a consistently hardline UK stance on deaths in the Mediterranean; ministers have opposed the use of search and rescue operations for those in peril. Theresa May, home secretary, argued this case strongly at an EU summit last October, where the decision was made that such missions should be withdrawn.

Soon after Ms May returned from the meeting, Lady Anelay, a Conservative foreign minister, told the House of Lords that search and rescue operations created an unintended "pull factor", "encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths".

In the run-up to a UK election campaign dominated by public concern about immigration, this position may have helped to quell voter fears about an influx from war-torn African countries. But as the crisis escalated over the weekend - with 900 migrants feared to have drowned in the latest accident - Ms May's policy came under pressure from opponents across the political spectrum.

Yvette Cooper, labour's shadow home secretary, called the Tory position "immoral".

"The British government must immediately reverse its opposition to EU search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, as the EU needs to restart the rescue as soon as possible," she said. "Theresa May was very wrong to argue that the EU rescue operations should be stopped in order to deter others from coming. It is immoral to turn our backs and leave people to drown in order to deter other desperate travellers - and of course it hasn't worked."

Even Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration UK Independence party, added his voice to the criticisms. "It was the European response that caused this problem in the first place," he told the BBC on Sunday. "The fanaticism of [the former French president Nicolas] Sarkozy and Cameron to bomb Libya - what they have done is to destabilise Libya, to turn it into a country of much savagery and a place where for Christians the situation is virtually impossible.

"We ought to be honest and say we have directly caused this problem," he added. "There were no migrants coming across from Libya in these quantities before we bombed the country and got rid of Gaddafi, however bad he may have been."

The Tories have countered that people are arriving in Europe from all over Africa and other parts of the Middle East, not just Libya.

Departing a meeting of EU foreign and interior ministers on Monday, Ms May welcomed the joint agreement on a proposed military operation to destroy boats used by people traffickers, but showed no sign of backing down on search and rescue missions.

"We will be looking at enhanced co-operation between law enforcement agencies, we will be looking at how we can work better with third countries to ensure these journeys don't start, don't happen in the first place and also at how we can more effectively return illegal migrants," she said.

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