Germany No Longer Supports Libya Migrant Camps
Germany’s foreign minister reversed his country’s support for a European plan to set up camps for migrants in Libya.
“The camps existing on the ground already show horrible and catastrophic conditions,” Sigmar Gabriel said on a visit to Ethiopia. “The idea to set up camps … would be an utter disregard of circumstances for the people.”
Earlier, Berlin had backed efforts to channel support to Libya in order to stop the growing numbers taking boats to Italy. Italy signed a deal with the U.N.-backed government in Libya in February to provide money, training and equipment to stop the flow of migrants.
The U.N. and human rights groups have warned that the government has little control over the country and migrants returned to Libya face dire conditions in detention centers, slavery and widespread sexual violence.
Gabriel now says that Europe should focus on stabilizing the African countries from which people are fleeing. He was speaking after meeting with officials from the African Union, whose chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat also stressed that investment would be more effective than setting up migrant-holding camps in an unstable nation.
E.U. Says Border Controls Must End in Six Months
The E.U. allowed Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway to keep border controls for another six months but warned it would not offer another extension.
In 2015, the E.U. permitted countries in Europe’s Schengen area, which allows passport-free travel, to temporarily impose border controls as tens of thousands of asylum seekers traveled overland through the continent.
The bloc has twice granted six-month extensions, but said that controls must now be phased out by November.
“The time has come to take the last concrete steps to gradually return to a normal functioning of the Schengen area,” E.U. home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said. “Schengen is one of the greatest achievements of the European project. We must do everything to … protect it.”
The same day, Sweden said it would remove I.D. checks on its border with Denmark, but will keep surveillance cameras and vehicle X-rays.
Thousands Flee Militia Violence in Central African Republic
An uptick in violence in the Central African Republic has displaced thousands of civilians and raised fears of a return to civil war, Voice of America reports.
Fighting between militias linked to the 2014 crisis, when rival groups engaged in the mass slaughter of civilians, has again spread around the country, according to Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF).
“Our teams have witnessed summary executions and have found mutilated bodies left exposed to terrorize populations. Civilians are traumatized and many have fled to the bush where they are surviving on whatever they can find,” said MSF’s deputy head of mission Rene Colgo.
More than 100,000 people have been uprooted by violence since September, and nearly one-fifth of the country’s population is displaced.
“They don’t have food. They don’t have seeds. They don’t have mats to sleep on. They don’t have potable water,” the International Organization for Migration’s Fabrice Tiro told Voice of America. “So, everything was destroyed in these events. They are starting from zero.”
Recommended Reads:
- IRIN: Kenya’s Black Market in ‘Refugee Real Estate’
- Foreign Affairs: What Do Syrians Want Their Future to Be?
- The New York Times: First Night in America
- Voice of America: Mass Eviction in Lebanon Buries Refugees in Debt
- The Guardian: U.K. Researchers Lead Effort to Design Climate-Proof Refugee Housing