Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum in Tripoli: too much talk but little action

Early last month, the Tripoli-based government hosted the Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum (TMMF), with the participation of 16 African and European states and 12 international and regional organisations, including the United Nations mission in Libya.

Among the top leaders taking part were the Chadian President, Mohamed Idriss Deby, and Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and their host, Libya’s Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. In his opening statement, Mr. Dbeibeh said the aim of the gathering was to “formulate a unified vision that enhances organised cooperation and integrated coordination between the concerned countries.” Mr. Dbeibeh, whose government does not control the entire Libyan territory, added that the meeting wants to “develop” EU-African ties in “economy and trade”, hopefully to have a positive impact on the issue at hand: reducing the influx of illegal African and other illegal migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in search of a better life in the EU.

Yet, the meeting failed to really answer the basic question: what it takes to encourage people to stay in their own countries, mostly poor and politically unstable African countries, starting from Libya’s southern borders.

READ: Tunisia urges Europe to increase assistance to tackle migration crisis

What really matters to the EU countries, particularly Italy where most migrants crossing the Mediterranean first land, is to keep as many of them as possible away from the bloc’s southern borders. What really happens to them while they are kept in Libya and other southern countries, like Tunisia, is not the EU’s business. How they are treated while in captivity in Libya or elsewhere is also not an issue, as far as the EU is concerned.

Indeed, illegal migration is a global issue and probably the most urgent issue facing humanity in this century. This means it requires global management at the UN level, since almost all national and regional policies have, so far, failed to end the problem or even limit the number of people on the move.

Last May, the International Organisation for Migration estimated that there are more than 706,000 migrants in the country. However, in the run-up to the start of the MMTF, Libya’s Minister of Interior, Imad Trabelsi, said that the country is hosting around 2.5 million foreigners, and that 80 per cent of them are undocumented. The UN has documented 20,000 deaths and disappearances among migrants while attempting to cross over to the EU, from 2014 to date.

The Minister also pointed out the fact that the numbers are increasing every year and such an increase could be observed all over Libya. Right after the TMMF meeting finished, the Ministry launched an operation to hunt down and arrest illegal workers and migrants to deport them back to their home countries.

This is not the first time the Libyan authorities have taken such measures, but the overwhelming numbers of illegal migrants and undocumented workers is just too huge and beyond its law enforcement capacity and capabilities. Mr Trabelsi’s boss, Prime Minister Dbeibeh,  speaking to reporters before the opening of the MMTF meeting, called on wealthier nations to provide “the funds” in order to stop the influx of migrants” through creations of jobs at the source countries.

Mr. Trabelsi, also stressed that all such undocumented foreigners do not pay “taxes, electricity and water” and they keep coming because Libya’s borders are not secured, he said. Highlighting the threat associated with the flow of undocumented foreigners, the Minister said the issue now is a  “national security” issue and Libya cannot “continue to pay the price”.

“EU Support on Migration in Libya”, an EU document dealing with EU emergency funds to Libya, says that the bloc has provided some €700 million to Libya over “recent years”, but only 13 per cent of funds go to border management. The EU has also been providing technical assistance to the country’s Coast Guard, a paramilitary organisation, responsible for preventing migrants from sailing to Europe and returning those who manage to get into the waters. But the organisation is militia linked, and accused by different rights groups of mistreating migrants and keeping them incarcerated in inhumane conditions in jail centres.

READ: Libya, Malta renew deal to combat irregular migration

While MMFT is a good step on the long road of tackling the migration crisis, it failed to make any pledges in terms of funds or next steps to be taken by the concerned countries. This is not the first time the matter has been discussed between Libya and its southern neighbours and the EU side. There have been several attempts to deal with it, considered top EU priority, but nothing has been done, so far, in terms of actual programs to keep the influx of migrants in the source countries, instead of risking their lives to try to reach Europe.

Libyan laws on migration and asylum are also being cited as another example of how Libya is a little behind compared to other countries when it comes to dealing with migration and refugees. The UN mission in Libya reminded participants in the MMTF of the matter by calling on the Libyan authorities to “adopt a comprehensive legal and policy framework on migrants and refugees” in accordance with its international “human rights and refugee law obligations”. The mission statement pointed out that Libya should “find alternatives to detention, ending immigration detention of children and victims of trafficking”, and a host of other measures, including what the mission termed “safe and regular migration pathways”.

But none of that is a priority for Libya, which is divided between two administrations, one in Tripoli, recognised by the UN, and a parallel one in Benghazi with control over long stretches of migration pathways and much of the country’s southern borders where most migrants cross into the country. This situation has been the norm since the EU-helped rebels toppled the late Gaddafi government in 2011, in an eight-month military conflict that saw the intervention of NATO for the first time in North Africa.  In a way, the EU helped exacerbate the problem instead of helping quell it.

When it comes to illegal migration, the EU itself lacks unified policy on how to deal with it and many countries in Southern Europe, like Italy, complain about the fact that they are left to handle the matter on their own. Until the EU envisions a common solution to the problem, it will continue to persist and Libya will continue to fail to control the flow of migrants heading north.

When the next MMTF takes place next year, if it does, the participants will find the same issue on the agenda with few solutions that have been implemented, since none were developed in the first place.

READ: Italy PM Meloni says illegal migrant flows damage all nations

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.