Europe migrant crisis: warning of terrorists posing as migrants

The Australian

By Bel Trew, Tom Kington / The Times

24 August  2017

Europe will be increasingly at risk from terrorists posing as migrants unless western capitals help Libya to stem the numbers crossing the Mediterranean, the country’s prime minister has told The Times.

Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the United Nations-backed unity government based in Tripoli, warned that would-be terrorists were among the tens of thousands of people able to pass unvetted into his country across its open southern borders.

“When migrants reach Europe, they will move freely. If, God forbid, there are terrorist elements among the migrants, a result of any incident will affect all of the EU,” he said.

His comments, which follow last week’s terrorist attacks in Spain that police have linked to radical groups in north Africa, come as Libya and Italy send an SOS to the rest of Europe over the migrant crisis.

Nearly 98,000 migrants have crossed from Libya to Italy this year, barely short of last year’s record number of arrivals. At least 700,000 migrants are estimated to be in Libya.

The Times begins a series of reports today from Africa and southern Europe based on scores of interviews with political leaders, migrants, charity chiefs and citizens on the front line, revealing the scale of the problems in the EU and on its borders.

The coverage includes:

Clear evidence of a modern-day slave trade on Libya’s migrant routes.

A warning that Italy’s “social and democratic fabric” is under threat amid growing public intolerance towards migrants and a rise in support for anti-migrant parties.

A Libyan five-point plan for the EU to help to solve the crisis, including help to police its southern border, which is supported by Italy.

Signs of the deep resentment in Rome and Tripoli, where leaders accuse Brussels of abandoning them.

In Italy the anti-establishment Five Star Movement has adopted an increasingly anti-migrant stance, which has helped to put it neck and neck in the polls with the ruling Democratic Party before elections next year. The anti-migrant Northern League has also risen in the polls in recent months.

Particular resentment is reserved for President Macron of France, who has closed his country’s border to migrants. Austria has done the same. The 200,000 places in Italy’s migrant reception centres are full.

Luigi Di Maio, the likely Five Star candidate for prime minister, said: “Italy risks becoming the refugee camp of Europe and Italians don’t want to be given the run around any more. We have ten million Italians living in poverty, while migrants are being given euros 38 a day to live. It’s a pressure cooker that could explode.”

He said of Mr Macron: “He comes across as a great European then said he couldn’t take any migrants.”

Angelino Alfano, the Italian foreign minister, made clear that Italy felt abandoned by the EU. Asked if Europe had turned its back on the country, he said: “A very clear yes.” He added: “Italy is contributing, but we cannot cope with this burden alone.” Marco Minniti, the interior minister, said: “Ungoverned migrant flows are threatening the social and democratic fabric of Italy.”

Mr al-Serraj said that the stakes were just as high in Libya: “The EU must do more to us help face smuggling. We can’t put the burden on Libya and Italy alone as it is important for all of Europe.”

His five-point plan includes EU assistance to secure Libya’s southern border and lift the UN arms embargo, allowing Tripoli to arm its coastguard more effectively. It also involves applying diplomatic pressure on African states to take back economic migrants.

Mr al-Serraj also accused European charities operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean of attracting migrants from across Africa to Libya.

This month Medecins Sans Frontieres, Save the Children and Sea Eye, of Germany,stopped work in the Mediterranean, saying that they could not operate safely when Libya’s coastguard had issued an “explicit threat” against them. Mr al-Serraj said that their ships, not Italy’s shores, had become the migrants’ “first target”.


Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/europe-migrant-crisis-warning-of-terrorists-posing-as-migrants/news-story/e683ba2b336def470a1d461007e116a3