EU, AU seek to increase efforts to deal with situation of migrants in Libya

BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (KUNA) -- The European Union and the African Union agreed Wednesday to step up their efforts to improve the appalling situation of migrants in Libya.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union, told a press conference after meeting EU High Representative Federica Mogherini in Brussels that smuggling really is the most shocking aspect of the migration problem.
"We need to be merciless in our fight against people smugglers and slave traders of modern times. This is tied in with the situation in Libya. We need to improve and increase efforts to address the situation in Libya to restore a sense of governance," he said.
He added that the problem though is the fact that there isn't one single government ruling the Libyan territory and it is quite difficult to find out how many migrants are in Libya.
There has been talks of hundreds of thousands people so first of all what they need to do with the help of the EU and the UN is to draw a census of the migrants that are in Libya, through the help of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UNHCR.
On her part, Mogherini told the joint press conference that the EU will continue to support peace and stability with their partner countries in Africa via military and civil missions.
She noted that 30,000 policemen, army soldiers and judges have been trained in the last few years in Africa.
Mogherini said the EU has signed a memorandum of understanding with IOM which included large scale funding from the EU so the IOM can work within Libya, go into the detention centres and help people as well as assist people in returning to their country of origin.
Since then, over 10,000 people have received assistance to return voluntarily to their home countries thanks to the cooperation that the EU has set up with the IOM, she added. (end) nk.ibi