LIBYA REJECTS EU MIGRANT CENTRE PLAN AND CALLS IT UNACCEPTABLE
Italy also quick to rebuff key proposal to give EU states €6,000 a migrant if they hold them in processing units
Libya’s UN-backed government is refusing permission for the EU to set up migrant processing centres on its soil.
Prime Minister Fayez Al Serraj yesterday met Elizabeth Trenta, the Italian Defence Minister, in Tripoli.
Mr Al Serraj called for the focus of efforts to combat illegal migration to be on Libya’s southern borders and the countries of origin further south, his spokesman Mohamed Selleck said.
Under plans proposed by Rome and Brussels, the bases would stop the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.
“It will not happen,” Mohamed Raied, member of parliament for Misrata and head of Libya’s Chamber of Commerce, told The National.
“There is no need for such a thing. The Serraj government will reject it. It is unacceptable.”
The news came as Italy’s hardline Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, dismissed another key part of the EU plan, in which states would be paid €6,000 (Dh25,745) for each migrant if they accepted them in secure centres – another change to the bloc’s policy.
While the EU claimed it would ease migrant pressures, Mr Salvini said it would only acerbate the problem.
“We aren’t asking for charity handouts,” he said. “Every asylum seeker costs the Italian taxpayer between €40,000 and €50,000. Brussels can keep their charity. We don’t want money. We want dignity.”
The EU Commission estimated that each processing centre would need at least 315 staff, including 100 interpreters and “cultural mediators”, to be able to process 500 migrants at a time. No EU country has volunteered to host a centre.
Although the number of people attempting the life-threatening voyage across the Mediterranean has fallen, the issue has become a political crisis, with Mr Salvini leading attempts to stop migrant boats docking in Italy.
EU leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, last month agreed to establish secure centres for processing asylum claims of Mediterranean migrants.
But the plans were immediately thrown into doubt when Austria, France, Germany and Italy said they would not host any centres.
France and Italy have had differing policies on Libya, with the Italians throwing their weight by the UN-backed Government of National Accord and the French showing sympathy for east Libya’s Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army.
Field Marshal Hafter’s army has condemned Italian calls for a base in Libya. The army said it would “take all measures to protect the Libyan state so as to prevent any act that violates national sovereignty. This would be considered a flagrant violation of the rules of international law and a blatant attack on the Libyan state,” it said.
Italy has carried out research over a proposed military outpost on Libya’s south-western border with Algeria. This led to protests in Ghat town, near to where such a base would be.
Images of locals stamping on an Italian flag were shared on social media and Ghat airport was briefly taken over by angry youths threatening to stop any Italian delegation landing.
“The Italian ambassador is not welcome in the south,” a senior southern tribal figure, regarded by many as a future deputy prime minister, told The National.
The leader also spoke against a push for elections, driven by France, by the end of the year in the North African nation.
“The government needs legitimacy and we appreciate the push for elections but it can’t come in December,” he said. “We must wait until conditions have changed.”
Back in Italy, Ms Trenta said: “We do not believe that an acceleration of the electoral process can bring stability.”
She said that Libya needed “reconciliation, the return of security and political work”.
One Libyan observer at talks with Emmanuel Macron in May said the French president “appeared overeager to commit to agreements without considering if they could be followed through”.
On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrived in Tripoli then went to Field Marshal Haftar’s Benghazi base to help pave the way for elections in December.
It will not happen. There is no need for such a thing. The Serraj government will reject it MOHAMED RAIED Member of parliament for Misrata and head of Libya’s Chamber of Commerce