Italy Plans Naval Mission Off Libya to Stop Migrant Boats

The New York Times

By JASON HOROWITZ

27 July 2017

ROME — Italy’s prime minister convened top cabinet ministers on Thursday to discuss a plan to send Italian warships into Libyan territorial waters to combat smugglers who have sent thousands of migrants to Italian shores.

The step came a day after Italy struck a long-elusive deal with Libyan authorities to give it a freer hand along the African coast, and it reflected Italy’s rising frustration with what it sees as having to deal with Europe’s migrant crisis on its own.

This year alone, nearly 100,000 migrants from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East have arrived in Italy, a 7 percent spike compared to the same period last year. More than 2,000 migrants have died at sea this year as they risked the crossing.

On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni announced a potentially important breakthrough in Italy’s seemingly Sisyphean task of stopping migrants from setting sail for Sicily.

After meeting with Fayez Serraj, who leads Libya’s United Nations-backed government, in Rome’s Chigi Palace, Mr. Gentiloni announced that the Libyans had requested Italy’s help to stop the traffickers who have for years been operating brazenly in its territorial waters.

“It is very relevant news in the fight against human trafficking in Libya, if we respond positively,” Mr. Gentiloni said after the meeting. “I believe this is necessary.”

But the potential hurdles confronting such a strategy are manifold. Not least it requires the approval of parliament, which is scheduled to begin debating the potential deployment next Tuesday.

Once parliament gives consent, which is expected, the defense ministry says that it can quickly begin a mission and expects three to six ships, but also helicopters, fighter jets and drones, to be in action by mid-August.

In the meantime, Italian government officials said they were trying to untangle thorny issues related to the rules of engagement.

Those included what Italian warships would do if they encountered hostile human traffickers in foreign waters; whether they can stop arms and oil smugglers as well as human traffickers; and whether the migrants they might have to rescue should be returned to Libya, where they could face a horrific security situation.

The political impact could also be significant. Domestically, the waves of migrants have become a conservative talking point against the center-left government, which has found itself increasingly on the defensive as elections approach.

The crisis has stoked tensions between Italy and its European Union partners, who have mostly been unwilling to share the burden of migrants flowing into Italy, even as many of the migrants seek destinations farther north among Europe’s richer countries.

Since 2015, the government in Tripoli has denied the European Union’s antismuggling mission, called Sophia, from entering its waters. Italian efforts to train the Libyan Coast Guard have proved mostly ineffective.

Instead, Libya has emerged as a key point of departure for hundreds of thousands of migrants, as human traffickers capitalize on the power vacuum created by the overthrow and killing of Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011.

Aid groups operating ships have rescued a significant percentage of the migrants in grave risk of drowning at sea. Some anti-immigrant parties have accused the aid groups of encouraging, or even colluding with, human traffickers.

That suspicion, and a far-right-wing ideology to protect European countries from Muslim and a nonwhite “invasion,” prompted a group of far-right activists operating under the name Defend Europe to charter a ship to monitor and disrupt aid group activity to prevent asylum seekers from reaching Europe.

The “identitarians,” as they call themselves, planned to board the ship this month in Sicily and sail toward Libyan waters. But the ship got stuck for days in Egypt.

On Wednesday, it arrived in Northern Cyprus, where its captain and first mate were reportedly arrested themselves for people-smuggling and forging documents after about 20 South Asians were found on board.

About five of the South Asian crew asked for asylum. A spokesman for Defend Europe blamed the asylum requests on bribes from aid groups.


Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/world/europe/italy-plans-naval-mission-off-libya-to-stop-migrant-boats.html

EU gives 46 million euros to Italy to help protect Libya borders

Reuters

28 July 2017

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union gave 46 million euros ($54 million) to Italy on Friday to help it protect Libya's northern and southern borders, part of the bloc's efforts to stem arrival of African migrants across the Mediterranean.

Nearly 95,000 people reached Italy this year, embarking on smugglers' dinghies from the shores of the lawless Libya.

Rome plans to send navy vessels to Libyan waters next month to combat human trafficking, as well as looking to strengthen Libya's southern border, which many migrants cross on their way.

The EU has already deployed its mission further north in the Mediterranean and donated 90 million euros to improving living conditions for migrants stranded in Libya, as well as helping them get back home further south in Africa, to dissuade them from daring the deadly sea passage to arrive in the bloc.

It is supporting the U.N.-recognized government of Fayez Seraj in Tripoli, as well as training and equipping his coast guard to have it intersect migrants and put them back on shore.

The bloc is also trying to step back deportations of those who still make it to Europe, but fail to win asylum.

The EU's strategy has been badly criticized by rights groups for pushing people back to inhumane treatment and other perils in Libya's chaos, and failing to offer them enough protection.

Arrival figures show little to no sign that the EU strategy has worked so far.

Italy - Libya's former colonial master and the main gateway to Europe now for Africans - is increasingly under pressure and has resorted to more bilateral deals with Libya without waiting for the rest of the EU to follow.

A senior EU official hoped, however, that the combined 136 million euros, and Italy's own endeavors will together eventually lead to lower arrivals in Europe, which has turned increasingly cold to accepting refugees and migrants.

That came after a chaotic influx of more than a million people in 2015 caught the EU by surprise, beefing up support for populist, nationalist and euroskeptic parties across the bloc.

These groups make a strong link between immigration from the mainly-Muslim Middle East and Africa and a raft of recent Islamist attacks in Europe.

"If we want to stop the flow, there must be an element of deterrence. This is Realpolitik, Italy is the EU state that has the biggest presence on the ground in Libya, has an embassy and intelligence there," the official said.

"If we want someone to do something that will actually make a change, it can only be Italy. We will support them financially and that should bring effects."

($1 = 0.8515 euros)

Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Pritha Sarkar


Source:  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-eu-libya-idUSKBN1AD27S

Rescue ship arrives in Sicily with 245 migrants, 13 corpses

Business Standard


28 July 2017

Rome, July 28 (IANS/AKI) A ship docked in the Sicilian port of Trapani in Italy with 245 migrants on board who were saved earlier this week in the Mediterranean, as well as the bodies of 13 people who perished on the crossing, officials said on Friday.

Rescuers on Tuesday recovered the corpses of 13 migrants including pregnant women from a flimsy inflatable dinghy drifting 15 nautical miles off the Libyan coast.

Shocking pictures of the tragedy emerged showing survivors from sub-Saharan Africa sitting on the sides of the raft around a pile of bodies, many of which were naked.

A Spanish charity rescue vessel that reached the scene found 167 migrants alive.

Nearly 3,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the UN migration agency the International Organization for Migration.

A total 113,433 people entered Europe by sea this year through 26 July as the Mediterranean migrant crisis continues, with 94,445 of these people landing in Italy, according to IOM.

--IANS/AKI/mr/

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/rescue-ship-arrives-in-sicily-with-245-migrants-13-corpses-117072801575_1.html

Italy aims to deploy ships in Libyan waters by end-August

Reuters

By Steve Scherer

27 July 2017

ROME (Reuters) - Italy intends to deploy several ships in Libyan waters by the end of August to combat human trafficking and stem a huge influx of immigrants, a government source said on Thursday.

A mission plan should be brought to the Cabinet for approval on Friday, and the necessary parliamentary vote to endorse it may be held next week, the source said.

"The exact number of ships and sailors is still being worked out," said the source. If parliament approves, the mission might begin by the end of August, he said.

Amid mixed signals from Tripoli over whether Libya would allow the deployment, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni met with military chiefs and ministers on Thursday to discuss "security, immigration and the Libyan situation", according to a statement.

Some 600,000 migrants have reached Italy by sea from North Africa since 2014, making immigration a potent political issue and putting the country under increasing pressure to manage the new arrivals.

Most have embarked from Libya, where people smugglers operate with impunity in the turmoil that has gripped the country since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Gentiloni told reporters the mission was "a possible turning point".

Details of the plan will be presented to parliament on Tuesday, he said.

In a letter sent on Sunday that Gentiloni outlined on Wednesday, Libya's U.N.-backed government in Tripoli invited Italian warships into its territorial waters. Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj was in Italy for the announcement of the plan on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Gentiloni said he had spoken to several European "colleagues" who supported the mission. "It pleases me to know there is a lot of support in Europe to this new possibility," he said.

Despite Serraj's visit, Libya’s presidential council in Tripoli on Thursday denied it had given permission for Italian forces to be in Libyan waters and warned sovereignty was a red line.

"What was agreed with Italy was the completion of the program supporting the coast guards to train and prepare them with armed capabilities and equipment for saving lives of migrants, and to confront criminal organizations," it said.

"....National sovereignty is a red line that cannot be passed."

The council gave no explanation for the conflicting positions. But Libya's U.N.-backed presidential council is split and Serraj has struggled in a country where rival factions have steadily battled for control since Gaddafi's fall.

In the past, officials have backtracked on statements that appear to impact Libya's sovereignty, such as counter-terrorism cooperation, as they come under pressure from rivals at home.

Tripoli had in the past refused access to its waters to the European Union's anti-trafficking sea mission Sophia since 2015, hobbling efforts to stop smugglers.

Command Ship

A command ship heading a flotilla of at least five smaller vessels and up to 1,000 sailors will be used in the mission, newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Thursday. Planes, helicopters and drones will also be used, it said.

The rules of engagement, the area of coastline to be patrolled and the nature of cooperation with Libya's security forces have yet to be defined, the source said.

One thing is clear: Italy wants migrants picked up by its ships - should the Libyan coastguard not be able to intervene directly - to be returned to Libya and not taken to Italy.

"This all makes sense only if we can limit the arrival of migrants in Italy," the source said.

Migrants who reach international waters are brought to Italy because Libya is not considered safe for refugees, and returning them there would be a violation of international non-refoulement law.

Because the Libyan coastguard returns migrants to detention centers where they are held indefinitely in "inhuman" conditions, according to the United Nations, Italy wants U.N. agencies to bolster their presence there and to operate migrant camps that respect human rights, the source said.

Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli, editing by Larry King and John Stonestreet

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security-italy-navy-idUSKBN1AC1PA?il=0

Unchecked Migration Continues to Splinter Europe

Carnegie Europe

By Andrew A. Michta

27 July 2017


European governments should engage to tackle the migration crisis at its source, otherwise Europe’s already tenuous tolerance of immigrants will only decrease.

Europe continues to face its greatest migration wave since the end of World War II. The majority of migrants are arriving from outside the continent, especially the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) but also the Sahel and, increasingly, Asia. In March 2017, Frontex, the EU’s frontier agency, warned that the number of people undertaking the Central Mediterranean crossing was on the rise. With the arrival of summer, the next wave of MENA migration into Europe is about to be unleashed.

A May 2017 German government report warned that up to 6.6 million people were clustered around the Mediterranean preparing to cross to Europe from Africa, awaiting favorable summer weather to launch to sea. Now that the Western Balkan migration route has been closed, Libya is fast becoming the main transition point, reportedly with 2.5 million migrants in North Africa waiting to cross by boat. Meanwhile, over 3 million remain stalled in Turkey, prevented from entering Europe by the EU’s March 2016 refugee deal with the Turkish government. The figures could be higher still: some estimates put the number of migrants preparing to enter Europe as high as 8–10 million.

The uninterrupted flow of migration into the EU has redefined Europe’s geostrategic position. Today, Europe’s Southern border runs deep into Africa along the Sahel and across the Middle East. Southern Europe in particular remains exposed and vulnerable to pressure from MENA migration flows, which have had two ripple effects.

The first has been the progressive atrophying of the EU’s Schengen system of passport-free travel, one of the greatest achievements of European integration. The second has been growing polarization among states across the continent, with fundamental and increasingly intractable divisions on the question of resettlement—especially between Germany and Central and Eastern Europe. Temporary border controls established in Europe in September 2015 did not provide much respite. Now, the proposed lifting of border controls within the EU is likely to accelerate migration flows.

Europeans’ initial calm, goodwill, and even enthusiasm for the new arrivals and manifest Willkommenskultur, or welcoming culture, have given way to growing public anger. In parallel, public confidence in European governments’ ability to deal with the crisis has rapidly declined.

The current EU debate on how to tackle the crisis seems to have bifurcated into two strands. On the one hand, the European Commission and some countries most impacted by migration, especially Germany, have made repeated demands for European solidarity on resettlement quotas. On the other hand, states that have been less affected, primarily in Central Europe, have made efforts to slow down the flow by closing off access routes, while others such as Italy have sent money to countries in the region to keep the migrants in place. Despite occasional indicators of success, especially in terms of assistance to transit states, the EU will likely be overwhelmed by the next migration wave, with surging numbers of migrants from deep inside Africa.

Migration continues to reorder domestic politics in Europe, as immigration fatigue sets in across the continent and national populist parties gain traction. No other issue drives political realignment in Europe more directly today than the growing public anger over governments’ inability to stop the flood, process applications in a timely manner, and return those whose asylum applications have been rejected. In election after election, challengers have threatened established political parties, and although anti-immigration parties have yet to prevail and their support fluctuates, they have managed to shrink the political middle ground in Europe.

MENA migration also fuels frictions between governments. Austria’s foreign minister recently demanded that Italy stop allowing illegal migrants to reach the Italian mainland, as this gives them a gateway to Europe. In July, the Italian foreign ministry responded by calling in the Austrian ambassador to complain after the Austrians threatened to deploy 750 military personnel to the Brenner Pass on the Austrian-Italian border.

Meanwhile, the governments of Hungary and Poland have been outspoken in their determination not to allow any migrants to be resettled on their territories. Opposition to the European Commission’s quota schemes for migrant resettlement remains strong across Central Europe.

These tensions have fractured the EU on immigration policy. Resentment has grown in those European countries that have borne the brunt of resettling the new entrants, especially Germany and Sweden but also Austria, Denmark, and, outside the EU, Norway. Some governments have made it clear that they are prepared to use their armed forces to prevent illegal migration into their countries.

A key factor in the current European debate on migration has been the initial decision to allow migrants to enter and be processed in Europe regardless of whether they can prove refugee status, even though the majority are economic migrants. If there is a solution to the current migration crisis, it lies in sealing the EU’s external borders and establishing a system to screen migrants outside Europe.

This would require a large commitment of resources as well as European military power to create areas where initial screenings could take place before migrants can enter Europe. Admittedly, this would be a massive task, as it would require the EU to engage both militarily and in terms of aid to transit countries on a scale not seen so far, beginning with breaking smuggling chains and stopping boats from leaving for the Mediterranean.

Europe is fast approaching a moment of truth about how such massive migration waves will impact the European project, intergovernmental relations, and the overall culture of tolerance that defined postwar democratic Europe. For more than two years, the migration crisis has splintered an already fragile EU consensus on immigration policy, with the blame game becoming ever more common. Finger pointing in Europe, especially against Germany for its decision to open its doors to a large number of migrants in 2015, has become an important variable in how the intra-EU politics of migration has unfolded.

But such accusations and counter accusations will do nothing to address the crisis. Unless governments engage on a large scale at the source, the likely victim will be Europe’s already tenuous tolerance of immigrants. The clock is ticking.

Andrew A. Michta is the dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Views expressed here are his own.


Source: http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/72664?lang=en

Tripoli asks Italy to help fight traffickers in Libyan waters

AFP

26 July 2017

Rome (AFP) - Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has appealed to Italy to send ships into Libyan territorial waters to help combat human trafficking, Rome said Wednesday.

Sarraj "sent a letter requesting the Italian government provide the technical support of Italian naval units in the joint struggle in Libyan waters against human traffickers," Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said.

Gentiloni said the ministry of defence was considering the request and "the options will be discussed with the Libyan authorities and the Italian parliament".

Should Italy respond positively, "as I believe is necessary, it could be a very important development in the fight against people trafficking," he added.

The Italian PM was speaking after a meeting in Rome with Sarraj, the head of the Government of National Authority (GNA), based in the capital Tripoli.

The move would doubtless help cut down the number of migrant boat departures from the coast of crisis-hit Libya and ease the strain on Italy, which has struggled to house the many thousands of people rescued at sea.

Sarraj admitted "we need to do more so that our coast guard can fight illegal immigration and ensure that we have advanced technologies to control our coasts".

Close to 94,000 people have been brought to safety in Italy so far this year, according to Italy's interior ministry, an increase of over five percent compared to the same period last year.

More than 2,370 people have died since January attempting the perilous crossing, the UN refugee agency said.

EU member states on Tuesday agreed to extend the Sophia anti-trafficking operation in the Mediterranean for another 18 months amid growing concern at the number of migrants crossing to Europe.

And European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker promised Gentiloni an extra 100 million euros ($116 million) in funding, on top of nearly 800 million euros already pledged.

Sarraj was in Rome a day after he committed to a ceasefire in the conflict-ridden country with his rival Khalifa Haftar, the military commander based in the east of the vast country.

The commitment, announced in Paris, saw the two men pledge to holding elections that French President Emmanuel Macron said would take place in spring 2018.


Source:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/tripoli-asks-italy-help-fight-traffickers-libyan-waters-113554853.html

Libya ready to declare migrants rescue area-sources

Authorities saved 3,000, stopped other 11,000 leaving Monday

ANSA

25 July 2017

(ANSA) - Brussels, July 25 - Libya is ready to declare its own search and rescue area (SAR) at sea for migrants and work with Italy to see to what degree it is capable of presiding over it, European sources said Tuesday. The development emerges after Monday's meeting in Tunis of the interior ministers of Algeria, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Libya, Mali, Malta, Niger, Slovenia, Switzerland, Chad and Tunisia. On Monday alone the Libyan coast guard saved 3,000 migrants and took them back to the North African country and stopped another 11,000 leaving for Europe.


Source: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/07/25/libya-ready-to-declare-migrants-rescue-area-sources_e4407f90-5ce5-4c76-b07e-c9a92c44f7a3.html