Sant wants blockade outside Libya to stop traffickers

Labour MEP Alfred Sant is supporting a blockade outside North African coasts, claiming this is the “best way” to save the lives of migrants exploited by human smugglers.

Speaking in a debate on a report from the extradordinary European Council on the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean, in which over 700 lost the lives in a shipwreck while trying to cross over into Europe, San said that trafficking operations had now reached “industrial proportions”.

“We all know what needs to be done… Eventually they will be penetrated, perhaps already are, by extremist elements. The situation in Libya, which has the longest stretch of coastline, is out of control,” Sant said.

Dubbing the humanitarian crisis “also a security crisis”, Sant said the EP could not wait for a unified Libyan government before taking decisive action. “Police exercises, sporadic or programmed, will not be enough to deal with the latest situations.”