Royal Navy warship HMS Diamond sent to Libya’s Mediterranean coast to tackle migrant boats
More than 13,000 have been rescued from the Mediterranean in the last week alone
A BRITISH warship is being sent to the coast of Libya to take on human traffickers.
HMS Diamond left Portsmouth for the Mediterranean last week to head up a taskforce intercepting migrant boats.
And the vessel is expected to begin its work in the next couple of days.
It will also focus on preventing the movement of arms through the Med.
The ship's commanding officer Marcus Hember said: "I’m proud that we will join the operation and make a contribution to tackling the movement of illegal arms around the region.”
More than 13,000 migrants have been picked up in the waters off the North African coast last week alone
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More than 100,000 migrants are believed to have made the perilous journey since the beginning of the year.
At least 3,100 have been killed during the hazardous crossing but experts fear many thousands more are unaccounted for.
Type-45 destroyer equipped with a 4.5-inch gun, missiles and fast-firing cannon will lead the EU Operation Sophia to take on illegal human traffickers who are behind many of the boats.
HMS Enterprise recently saved 700 migrants off the coast of war-torn Libya.
But not all are happy with the Royal Navy's resources being re-distributed to the area.
Head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Crispin Blunt, told the : "The smugglers are taking advantage of the fact there is no coherent government in Libya.
“Until there is a political settlement in Libya that encourages a Libyan government to accept assistance in its territorial waters, I fail to see how this can be effective.”
The majority of migrants are fleeing war zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - with many trying to reach Germany, Scandinavia, France and Britain.
More than ONE MILLION migrants are believed to have made their way to Germany over the past year after Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to take those fleeing the Syrian civil war.
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