On Wednesday 22 November, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and African Union Commission President Faki Mahamat called for a better count of migrants in Libya. Their call comes at a time when migrants there are subject to inhumane treatment.
"The EU, African Union and UN need to exercise pressure, with joint force, for there to be a much more open and comprehensive process" to save migrants, Mogherini stated. She added that the EU had asked its Libyan partners, "not only the government", to ensure that the access of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to detention centres is facilitated in order to increase the level of assistance, save lives and organise voluntary returns.
"With the help of the UN and EU, we need to ensure that a count can be made by UN agents on the ground", Mahamat stated. "There is an absolutely urgent need for coordinated measures to be taken between the Libyan authorities, the African Union, the EU and the UN, at least for the people who are in danger of dying", he said. In Mahamat's view, "several hundred thousand" migrants are in Libya, and he said it was important to deal with "all those who manage a part of Libya".
According to Mahamat, the situation in which Libya finds itself has facilitated the development of migrant trafficking. "The traffickers need to be fought mercilessly. Efforts need to be redoubled for the situation in Libya to be re-established. This is a non-state and thus non-legal situation", he said. In his view, the fact that the Libyan government does not control the whole territory enables criminal groups "to have their hearts' content". "They absolutely have to be put out of business", he added.
France has moreover called for an "express" meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the slavery of migrants in Libya. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)