EU effort to halt migrant flow flounders amid Libya chaos

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When Libya's coastguard received the first of a long-awaited batch of patrol boats from Italy last month, two of the four vessels had mechanical problems and one broke down on the way to Tripoli.

As Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti flew in to Libya to officially present the boats at a naval base, coastguards grumbled that the vessels were old and had little deck space for rescued migrants.

Half a million people have crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy over the past four years, mainly sub-Saharan Africans who pay smugglers to shepherd them across the desert to Libya, and onward to Europe in un-seaworthy dinghies.

An estimated 13,000 of them have drowned.

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti speaks to the media after handing over boats that were repaired in Italy, to the Libyan navy at Tripoli naval base, Libya, May 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

European governments want to stop the flow of migrants and break the grip of smugglers.

But more than four months after Italy and the European Union launched a new push to tackle the crisis, accounts by migrants, aid workers and officials show that efforts are all but failing to make a difference.

When Libyan authorities do catch migrants, they are taken to detention centers nominally under the control of the government, which already house around 8,000 people.

Though Europeans have pledged funding to improve the camps, some are still so cramped that migrants have to sleep sitting up.

The sea route from the Libyan coast is one of two main routes in the biggest flow of migrants to Europe since World War Two.

The other, by sea from Turkey to Greece, was largely shut down last year after an agreement between the EU and Ankara, but the flow from Libya has only increased.

Migrants crammed into a holding center in Tripoli, after being picked up by the Libyan coastguard. /Financial Review Photo

This year has already seen 70,000 people make the journey, with the summer peak season for the voyage only just beginning.

An estimated 2,000 have died so far this year.

Since last year, the EU has made a push to cooperate with a new Libyan government backed by the United Nations. In February, Italy signed a memorandum of understanding with Tripoli that the EU quickly endorsed.

(With input from Reuters and AFP)

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