Libyan smugglers sense new opportunities

Federal migration experts fear that Libyan militias might try to "re-enter the lucrative smuggling business".

Tripoli - This comes from an internal paper of the Joint Analysis and Strategy Center for Illegal Migration (Gasim), about which Der Spiegel reports. In October, the conflicting parties in the Libyan civil war agreed on a ceasefire. The negotiation process harbors both opportunities and risks, write the Gasim experts.

If state structures were to be created, this could, on the one hand, inhibit illegal migration to Europe. On the other hand, some militias could take advantage of the end of the fighting to earn money with migrants. The corona measures might have led to a "backlog of departures" of refugees and migrants from Libya, it is said.

According to official information, around 15,000 migrants crossed from there to Italy or Malta from January to mid-November. In 2019 there were only half as many. Most of them, 3,600 people, said they were from Bangladesh.

Other countries of origin were Sudan, Somalia, Morocco and Egypt.

Source: DerNewsticker

Image: eu-ocs.com