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FT: Italy steps up talks with Libya over curbs to Med migrant flows

Posted by: Semere Asmelash

Date: Sunday, 15 January 2017

https://www.ft.com/content/e0e56ed4-d97f-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6aa8e 

EU immigration 

Italy steps up talks with Libya over curbs to Med migrant flows 

Rome-Tripoli agreement could include economic aid in exchange for stopping departures 

‎Jan 15, 2017‎ 

by: James Politi in Rome and Duncan Robinson in Brussels 

Italy has ramped up talks with Libya over a deal to stem migrant flows across the Mediterranean Sea, in a move that has raised EU hopes of curbing the flow of arrivals from north Africa but faces huge practical and political challenges. 

Over time an agreement between Rome and Tripoli could include economic aid in exchange for stopping migrant departures — echoing a deal signed in 2008 by Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, and Muammer Gaddafi, the late dictator, as well as last year’s EU accord with Turkey. 

Last week, Italy reopened its embassy in Tripoli after a two-year hiatus as Marco Minniti, the interior minister, visited the Libyan capital in order to flesh out the details of a potential agreement. 

“There is a new impulse here — we are moving as pioneers,” Mario Giro, Italy’s deputy foreign minister, told the Financial Times. “But there is a lot of work to do, because Libya still doesn’t yet have the capacity to manage the flows, and the country is still divided.” 

EU officials welcomed the renewed efforts as the route to Italy from countries such as Libya has remained a lethal problem for the bloc. Nearly half a million people have made the trip in the past three years, with more than 10,000 dead or missing in that time, according to data from UNHCR. 

Joseph Muscat, the prime minister of Malta, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has said a Turkey deal should be “replicated” in the southern Mediterranean. "I think that there should be a political signal from the European Union that it is ready to engage with Libya," said Mr Muscat. 

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s migration chief, said on a visit to Rome last week that the European Commission was ready to support Italy “politically, financially and operationally” in its attempts to co-operate with Libya to break up people smuggling rings. 

Mr Avramopoulos told the Financial Times that the Turkey deal “cannot be a blueprint, but we have learnt from its success”. The EU has championed migration “partnerships”, offering incentives — such as aid — to countries that help stem the flow of people. “The co-operation with each of these countries has to be tailor-made and context specific,” he added. 

But huge practical and political obstacles remain. Led by Fayez al Sarraj, the UN-backed government in Tripoli is extremely weak, and even as Italy launched its new diplomatic engagement last week, rival militias seized three government ministries, fuelling political instability in the country. 

In addition, the election of Donald Trump in the US and the rise of Vladimir Putin’s Russia has emboldened Khalifa Haftar, the Moscow-backed renegade general who controls the eastern part of Libya and opposes Mr al-Sarraj. 

“The situation is extremely fragile,” says Mattia Toaldo, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “I think with the end of the Obama administration Italy has lost its biggest ally in Libya — and Russia’s intervention on the side of Haftar is more and more evident,” he added. 

Italy’s centre-left government wants a deal with Libya so it can claim that it successfully reduced migrant flows ahead of the next Italian elections and fend off criticism from populist challengers. 

However, any deal could anger NGOs who are critical of the EU deal with Turkey. While human rights groups argued that Turkey was not a safe country for refugees to be returned to, the situation in Libya is undoubtedly worse. 

“It would be the absolute death knell for any semblance of a rights-based or values-based Europe,” said Judith Sutherland, associate director for Human Rights Watch. 

“The situation in Libya for migrants and asylum seekers is a full blown human rights crisis . . . There is a real, clear risk to their rights and freedoms.”

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