The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, arrived at the G20 on Friday 7 July with a clear aim: to obtain consensus among the top-20 economic powers in the world to introduce international sanctions against people-smugglers.
‘We have managed to overcome, to a great degree the crisis in the eastern Mediterranean, … and decreased number of migrants from 158,000 in the first half of 2016 to 9,000 in the first half of 2017,’ explained Donald Tusk. He said this had only been possible because there had been stable and determined partners, which didn’t apply to Libya, where a European source said the EU was acting alone.
There is enormous pressure on Italy and transporting migrants is a lucrative business for people-smugglers, who make a reported profit last year of USD$1.6 billion in Libya alone, explained Tusk, where the ‘profits allow smugglers to control some parts of countries, cooperate with terrorists and further undermine stabilisation in Libya.’ The president of the European Council said this business had to be smashed as a matter of humanitarian urgency.
Tusk went on: ‘I will propose to all G20 measures to pursue targeted UN sanctions against smugglers, by this I mean an asset freeze and travel bans. This is the very minimum that can be done at the global level. Unfortunately, I have to say, today we do not have the full support even for this minimum. If we do not get it, it will be proof of the hypocrisy of some of the G20 members.’ He admitted he was not very optimistic. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)