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EU migrant policy suffers blow as Italy, Libya reject proposals
BRUSSELS, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The European Union’s migrant strategy
suffered a major new setback Friday with Italy refusing to freely accept
people rescued at sea and Libya spurning a proposal for asylum processing
centres.
The salvoes follow a fractious EU summit in June which agreed to set up
“disembarkation platforms” outside the bloc to process migrants after Italy’s
new populist government said it was closing its ports.
“Italy does not want to be the only country where migrants saved at sea
by its own naval units disembark,” Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi
said in a letter to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
The Italian position and its implications will be discussed at a meeting
later Friday by member states in Brussels, EU sources said.
Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj meanwhile rejected the EU proposal
for asylum processing centres in his country, saying: “We are strictly
against Europe officially placing illegal migrants who are no longer wanted
in the EU in our country.”
Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia were also approached by the EU but have
already refused to host such centres.
“We also won’t agree on any deals with EU money about taking in more
illegal migrants,” the Libyan premier told Germany’s Bild newspaper.
Sarraj said European leaders should instead put pressure on migrants’
origin countries to stop them embarking on their journey in the first place.
Most of the migrants are from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has written to European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker saying his country would no longer take in
migrants plucked from the Mediterranean until other member states accepted
some of them.
Over the last decade, the Italian coastguard has coordinated the rescue
of hundreds of thousands of migrants off the coast of Libya, in many cases
pulling them from the water themselves in treacherous conditions.
But as of June, they have been ordered to transfer calls for help and
reports of boats in distress to the Libyan capital Tripoli.
– ‘Ad hoc solutions won’t work’ –
Juncker wrote back to Conte saying “these ad hoc solutions will not be
feasible in the long term,” according to a copy of a letter seen by AFP.
But Juncker agreed to try and identify nations that would shelter rescued
migrants until a definitive framework was agreed upon as to who would take
charge of them.
June was the deadliest month in the Mediterranean in recent years with
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reporting some 564 deaths
or disappearances, despite the fact that overall departures have dropped
sharply since the summer of 2017.
Under a controversial deal with the EU, Libyan coastguards intercept
migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean.
But the UN has slammed the policy as “inhuman”, noting that the migrants
are simply brought back to “horrific” detention centres in Libya.
The European Court of Human Rights also opposes the repatriation of
migrants to Libya on the ground that they could face rights abuse.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will discuss in the
coming weeks proposals for controlled holding centres for migrants in member
states and cooperation in rescue efforts, spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said
earlier this week.
BSS/AFP/RY/1902 hrs