EU helps Libyan immigration

EU leaders agreed yesterday to send a civilian border assistance mission to Libya as early as next month. A statement issued by European Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton, stressed the importance of protecting and controlling the Libyan borders as a means for protecting the European borders. The mission, dubbed EUBAM Libya, will help the country re-establish effective controls at its land, sea and air borders. “EUBAM Libya is an important mission for Libya and the entire region but also for the security of EU borders,” EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said. “The mission which will last for two years, responds to a direct request from our Libyan partners,” Ashton said in a statement. The mission was first suggested after the dictator Moamer Kadhafi was overthrown and aims to help the new government police land borders some 4,300 km long which often cross remote and inhospitable desert regions. The country’s maritime border is nearly 2,000 km long, with illegal immigration to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa a major problem. The mission, which costs €30 million ($39 million), will help advise and train Libyan officials for border duties and administration. Agreements were signed with the Gaddafi regime between Libya and the European Union, to cooperate to reduce illegal immigration. This cooperation which included physical and logistical European contribution has led to a reduction of the successive waves of illegal immigrants coming to Europe from the Libyan coast. After the overthrow of Gaddafi and his death in 2011, the security system in Libya collapsed leading to an increase in the flow of illegal immigrants, especially those from sub-Saharan, who consider Libya a transit station to European shores, and are encouraged by humanitarian groups and human rights organisations who prevent them from being sent back to their home countries. No single day passes in Libya without catching groups of immigrants, whom the Libyans accuse of corrupting the social life of the country, by bringing chronic diseases, bad habits, and destructive phenomena with them like drug trade, and managing prostitution places.