Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which migrant rescue missions the Government is involved in; and how many migrants have been rescued in the Mediterranean by UK vessels relative to last year's figures.

The UK is currently providing support to multiple operations across the Mediterranean.

Some of these have an explicit focus on search and rescue: Border Force and Royal Navy assets are supporting Operations POSEIDON and TRITON in the Aegean and central Mediterranean respectively.

Migrants have also been rescued this year as part of Operation SOPHIA – the EU’s military response to counter migrant smuggling from Libya. Although SOPHIA does not have a search and rescue mandate, under the UNCLOS, vessels respond to those in distress at sea. UK vessels have rescued over 25,000 migrants since January 2015, 9,000 of those within this calendar year.