By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 18 March 2016:
UK prime minister David Cameron’s has proposed that EU warships should operate against people-smugglers within . . .[restrict]Libyan territorial waters. Though it is widely recognised that EU patrols have , on occasions, already been picking up migrants quite close to the Libyan coast, this is the first time that idea has been put forward formally.
Cameron was in Brussels this afternoon to meet his French, German, Italian, Maltese and Spanish counterparts along with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Though he emphasised at a press conference afterwards that moving the EU migrant Operation Sophia into Libyan waters was not imminent he said “ It is important we start planning now….What we want to do now is to try and take [the operation] to the next stage of going into Libyan territorial waters”.
Migrants flows so this year from Libya toward Italy have been low in large measure because of winter storms. But the pace appears to be quickening. On Wednesday and Thursday, some 3,000 migrants were rescued.
Mogherini has said that she believes as many as 450,000 people are currently in Libya waiting the chance to make the crossing. However, Tripoli does not look as if it has its share of approaching half a million people being housed by people-smugglers at points along the coast from Zuwara to Misrata. Nevertheless, winter is also the best time for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to make the desert journey up from Sebha and Ghat, the principal staging posts. With zero checks at the border or thereafter, the greatest risk for the people-smuggling convoys and their the lucrative trips is mechanical breakdown or armed robbers.
The EU’s concerns have clearly been sharpened by the deal it just struck with the Turkish government which will allow migrants to be sent back to Turkey, principally from Greece. Cameron warned today that this was likely to increase the pressure on migrants from Libya.
This would mean that more Syrian, Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani migrants would look to make the longer trip to Libya, via Egypt, the Sudan or Chad..
The intelligence-led operation against the people-traffickers begun last summer has since been overshadowed by growing US and EU worries over the rise of IS in Libya. Despite the US airstrikes on Sabratha, prime-minister designate Faiez Serraj continues to insist that no international military action can be taken without the approval of the Government of National Accord. That approval clearly also applies to foreign warship entry into Libyan waters. [/restrict]
