On Monday 4 December, the special envoy of the High Commissioner for Refugees for the Central Mediterranean route, Vincent Cochetal, called on Europeans to control the financial flows of human traffickers in Libya.
“We need fewer nice words and a bit more action”, he told MEPs at the European Parliament’s development committee. “I believe there is a need to focus on financial flows”, he said. In Cochetel’s view, European states give flags to vessels that transport oil from militias and some traffickers have accounts in Europe. “Serious police work is needed, and judicial cooperation on a larger scale”, he said. “For the moment, there is absolutely total impunity”, he regretted, saying that while some traffickers are known, “no one has a visa ban or an assets freeze”.
On 18 July (see EUROPE 11831), the Foreign Affairs Council said it was ready to examine the possibilities of extending the restrictive measures for human smugglers and traffickers. But according to a European source, the Europeans would like measures to be taken at the UN Security Council level and they have not moved forward to the legal level for sanctions.
During another hearing, this time at the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, the chargé d’affaires from the Libyan mission to the EU, Mohamed Farhat, said his country was ready to work in cooperation with the international partners “more than ever” “in order to find a solution to the reasons for the migrants’ departures”. “The African Union has not taken a single initiative to help Libya”, he said.
“We can’t just be concerned with the issues of migrants. This is one of the challenges (…) with which Libyans are confronted. Libya is a country in a post-conflict period, in a very difficult situation, and a dangerous one. It is difficult to get a country back on its feet by concentrating only on the issue of migration”, he stated.
The period of political transition, agreed in the agreement of 17 December 2015, comes to an end of 17 December, although the country is still just as divided. Farhat spoke of political fragmentation, a multitude of armed groups, corruption and economic crisis. In his view, in order to help Libya, the EU should grant an autonomous preferential regime because it would help agriculture, fisheries and the food industry, and it would help the promotion of Libyan exports in Europe and give work to several thousand young Libyans and Africans.
“The disastrous situation of Libyans is undeniable. There is no electricity, water, fuel or cash in circulation. It is difficult to assume daily life”, Karim Mezran, a researcher from the Rafik Hariri Centre for the Middle East, said. “If we want to save the Libyan transition, it is necessary for the international community to take action behind the UN level and quickly, because we are in the process of losing the Libyan people”, he added, without giving further detail.
In the researcher’s view, “if the Salamé plan (of the special envoy for Libya Gebran) does not work, an appeal to the Libyan people should be made through elections to see if participation is higher”. He added that if this was the case, it would be difficult for the militia to oppose the result. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)