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By Alessandra Bocchi.
Tunis, 20 March 2017:
Faeiz Serraj flew to Rome today with an €800-million shopping list for equipment he wants in order to combat the migrant flow from the Libya coast, which by this weekend had surpassed 20,000 so far this year.
The Presidency Council head is reportedly telling a summit of EU leaders that Libya needs ten rescue vessels and ten patrol craft, four helicopters, 24 inflatables, ten ambulances, 30 four-wheel drive vehicles, as well as satellite phones.
Brussels has already given €200 million for the migrant detention centres in Libya but camps have been widely criticised for the squalid conditions in which detainees are kept. High-level visitors are regularly told by camp administrators that they have insufficient funds to look the inmates properly.
One idea on the table today is that migrant camps should be set up in other countries. Italian interior minister Marco Minitti believes that such camps would take the pressure off Libya.
Minitti has said that if an agreement can be reached today, it would send a signal strongly a new level of cooperation between Europe and North Africa.
