Dodging a question on whether she supported a proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron to set up “hotspots” to handle asylum requests from start to finish in Libya, Merkel said efforts to improve the situation “should not fail over money,” promising the organizations up to €50 million this year for new operations on the ground in Libya. [...]
During the first 10 days of August, the number of migrants making the crossing to Italy fell by 76 percent compared to the same period last year; last month, the number of arrivals had already halved compared to 2016. Interior Minister Marco Minniti told POLITICO on Thursday this was a direct result of Italy’s attempts to boost the Libyan navy and coast guard’s ability to deal with vessels carrying migrants. [...]
Ambrosi acknowledged that the Italian measures could have had an impact but stressed that other factors such as “a significant reduction” of the number of people entering Libya from sub-Saharan Africa, as well as well as the slow stabilization of the political situation in parts of Libya, were equally decisive.
What’s more, most migrants picked up by Libyan ships “are brought back to detention centers where conditions are not acceptable,” he added. “So you have taken them out of a nasty situation at sea, but you are putting them in an equally nasty or at times worse situation on land.”
No comments:
Post a Comment