Libya accused of ‘haggling’ with Europe over UNHCR

What price will Europe pay so that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi allows the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) back into Libya?

This question is being asked by Migreurop, a French/African NGO specialising in migrations issues, which has expressed serious doubts regarding the motivation behind Libya’s expulsion of UNHCR on 8 June.

“The decision to evict the UNHCR [was] reached while the seventh round of negotiations on a partnership between the EU and Tripoli began,” the NGO pointed out. “To bring forward negotiations, Libya requires additional funding and equipment for monitoring land and sea borders. Beyond the many control systems funding already in this country since the early 2000s, how far is the EU ready to go?”

Migreurope claims that UNHCR’s presence in Libya was a key factor in the agreement between Italy and Libya in August 2008, through which thousands of asylum seekers have been deported to the North African country.

“Thanks to the UNHCR’s presence in Tripoli, Italy... and Europe pretend that boat people pushed back to Libya found minimum security and protection. Everyone knows perfectly well that this is a smoke-screen,” the NGO commented.

Libya has not signed the Geneva Convention on refugees, and unconfirmed reports claim that migrants face persecution, torture, systematic rape and illegal deportation.

“Libya’s southern border, which Europe invests to padlock it better, is already a cemetery for Subsaharan Africans trying to cross it,” the NGO warned.

Now that UNHCR has been expelled from Libya, the Rome-Tripoli agreement may be jeopardised – a fact which Migreurope argues gives Libya greater bargaining power over Europe.

“Libya raises the bidding and the UNHCR is a party to these sordid negotiations. Its return to Tripoli is already planned,” the NGO said.