Libya pressures Europe to stop flow of immigrants
|
|
Would-be immigrants seeing to cross the Mediterranean are a big problem for the countries of Southern Europe and the whole European Union. There are pressures on both the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean to dam the flow.
Libya has become the second important transit point for immigration to Europe, right after Morocco, because of the inadequate patrolling of the Libyan border.
Another 400 daring souls set off for Italy again this week, but the busiest season is the summer, when the weather is warm.
The streams of immigrants flow mainly toward Italy, which has pushed the EU to do something about the illegal immigration.
The interior ministers of Italy and Germany proposed last autumn that transit camps should be set up in the countries of North Africa, and the European Commission was asked to look into the matter. An EU delegation visited Libya at the end of the year to examine the detention centres and border monitoring systems.
Having shaken off the yoke of international isolation, Libya is struggling under the burden of illegal immigration, and is pushing Europe to bear part of the burden.
"They cause problems. They bring crime, AIDS, and drugs. We do not have enough hospitals to treat the expensive diseases, and services to Libyans suffer", says Saied Elsaudi of the Ministry of the Interior and Security.
The Libyan Ministry of the Interior says that the immigrants are getting too expensive for Libya, a country with 5.8 million inhabitants. Different assessments put their numbers at anywhere between 700,000 and 1.5 million.
Africans have traditionally done the dirty jobs in Libya, and the country actually needs them.
Libya has traditionally implemented a policy of open doors, and invited its African brothers to come to work there. The country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi has sought to portray himself as a unifier of the Africans. Now Libya sees them all as illegal immigrants, and the Africans are confused at the reversal. Libya needs the European Union to help explain the about face in its policies, lest Gaddafi lose face.
Saied Elsaudi emphasises that it is in Europe’s own interest to prevent terrorists from crossing the Mediterranean along with the immigrants. Libya is marketing itself as a new partner of the United States and the EU in the so-called fight against terrorism. However, cooperation with the EU is still on the level of talk.
Libya wants the EU to provide help in training and the use of modern surveillance equipment. The EU has not yet promised anything.
If no help if forthcoming from the EU, the migration could increase, Elsaudi warns.
Colonel Arto Niemenkari of the Finnish Frontier Guard, who visited Libya with an EU delegation, says that Libya is unable to prevent illegal migration to Europe through its territory simply because it lacks a proper border security system. Libya would be able to secure its thousands of kilometres of desert and land borders if it decided to put enough resources into it.
"Libya does not have the means to monitor its maritime borders, because it has only a few naval vessels. There is monitoring of sorts in places where the smugglers embark, but the results are not impressive", Niemenkari says.
Smuggling is a lucrative business, and Libyans are also involved in it.
Gaddafi and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi sought to fight illegal immigration last autumn through a policy of by turning migrants back quickly. Italy sent back hundreds of would-be immigrants to Libya and incurred the condemnation of human rights organisations.
Libya, for its part, returned 48,000 Africans to their home countries last year. It claims to have paid for their flights, and given each one 150 dollars as a gift.
Libya has long put illegal immigrants into camps. Those arriving illegally in the country are without protection, and they are easily exploited. They can get work as undocumented labourers, but if they make wage demands, they can be reported to the authorities, taken to the internment camps, and sent back home.
Those visiting the camps in Libya say that the illegal immigrants are being kept in conditions resembling those of a prison. The camps contain undocumented aliens who face deportation, but there are also camps in Libya where legal immigrants live, and from where they go to work.
Libya says that it would welcome the transit camps proposed by EU countries, but the country’s Ministry of the interior sees them as a temporary measure.
The treatment of refugees has sparked suspicion in the EU and the UN Refugee Agency, because Libya is not a signatory to the Geneva refugee treaty.
"The camps are no five-star hotels, but they are also not concentration camps", Elsaudi says in his country’s defence.
The UNHCR says that the setting up of the camps has not been completely thought through. Who would carry the responsibility, who would maintain the centres, what legislation would apply, in light of the fact that Libya has not accepted relevant international treaties, and does not have a system of asylum?
From the point of view of the EU, the most problematic aspect is that Libya does not distinguish between economic migrants fleeing poverty, and asylum seekers fleeing war.
Elsaudi points out that most of the travellers are eager to get to Europe, which means that making a distinction is not that important. "Nobody asks for asylum in Libya."
Larbi Mebtouche, head of the UNHCR office in Libya disagrees. He says that more than 10,000 Africans have sought protection from the organisation in Libya in the past ten years.
"No long-term solution is being sought. They are merely regulating the flow of migration", Mebtouche complains. He feels that solutions should be sought to the underlying causes of illegal immigration: poverty and underdevelopment.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.1.2005
More on this subject:
 To Europe via Libya
Helsingin Sanomat
|
|
