The troubled north African nation of Libya has allowed emergency migrant evacuations after slavery uproar shook the world.
File photo: Nigerian return from Libya
The French President Emmanuel Macron has revealed that Libya has
agreed Wednesday with key EU and African leaders to allow migrants
facing abuse in detention camps to be evacuated within days or weeks,
mostly to their home countries.
According to Agence France Presse, AFP, the decision was taken
after Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called for “all urgent
measures” to end slave trading and other migrant abuses in Libya at an
EU-Africa summit in Abidjan.
The leaders of Libya, France, Germany, Chad, Niger and four other countries “decided on an extreme emergency operation to evacuate from Libya those who want to be,” Macron told reporters after their emergency talks on the summit sidelines.
The summit comes just two weeks after US network CNN aired footage
of black Africans sold as slaves in Libya, sparking outrage from
political leaders and street protests in African and European capitals.
“Libya restated its agreement to identify the camps where barbaric scenes have been identified,” Macron said, adding Libya’s UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez “Sarraj gave his agreement that access be assured.”
African Union, European Union and United Nations officials at the
meeting offered increased support for the International Organisation of
Migration “to help with the return of the Africans who want it to their home countries,” said the French leader who called the emergency meeting.
“This work will be carried out in the next few days, in line with the countries of origin,” he said, adding in some cases they could be given asylum in Europe.
EU sources earlier said UN humanitarian agencies like the IOM had
arranged for some 13,000 migrants to return voluntarily to their home
countries mainly in sub-Saharan Africa in the last year after a deal
with Libya.
The furore over slavery as well as torture and rape of black
African migrants in Libya prompted the select group of countries — which
also included Spain, Italy, Morocco and the Congo — to undertake other
measures.
The group also decided to work with a task force, involving the sharing of police and intelligence services, to “dismantle the networks and their financing and detain traffickers,” Macron said.
The AU, EU and UN officials also pledged to freeze the assets of
identified traffickers while the AU will set up an investigative panel
and the UN could take cases before the International Court of Justice,
he added.
Opening a European Union-Africa summit that was meant to focus on
the continent’s long-term economic development, Ouattara immediately
lashed out at slavery as a “wretched drama which recalls the worst hours of human history.”
Other African, EU and United Nations leaders also condemned the
slavery revelations when they met at the summit in Ivory Coast’s
economic capital Abidjan.
“I would like to appeal to our sense of responsibility to take
all urgent measures to put an end to that practice, which belongs to
another age,” he said, opening the gathering of 55 African Union and 28 EU leaders.
African Union and other critics have accused the EU of creating
conditions for the slave trade as well as rape and torture of migrants
by encouraging Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord to detain
migrants and stop them from coming to Europe.
The EU has been desperate to ease the worst migration crisis since
World War II, with more than 1.5 million migrants entering the bloc
since 2015.
In his speech to the summit, European Council President Donald Tusk acknowledged the “horrifying” treatment of young Africans.
But he also warned against starting “a blame game” and called for cooperation to fight criminals.
An EU source told reporters on condition of anonymity that it was
European pressure that forced Libya to open up and make it easier for
journalists to film slave auctions that migrants had in fact reported
were going on well before EU-Libyan cooperation began.
EU officials said the migrant influx, which has deepened political
divisions across the EU, as well as frequent Islamist attacks in Europe
have been a wake-up call to tackle the root causes of why people leave
their homes.
The EU has already set up multi-billion-euro funds to promote
Africa’s economic development while deepening counter-terrorism
cooperation with African countries where Islamist militant groups are
spreading.
The summit, due to wind up on Thursday, is intended to focus on
providing stability and long-term economic growth for a continent likely
to have 2.4 billion people by 2050, more than double what it is now.
Without fast-tracked development, millions could flee to Europe or turn to radical Islamist groups, EU and African leaders say.
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