Macron Calls for Military Action Against Libyan Smugglers
France’s president said military action was needed in Libya against smuggling networks. The call came at an E.U.-Africa summit where reports of slavery in Libya dominated discussions.
Emmanuel Macron said E.U. and African countries, including authorities in Libya, as well as the U.N., were discussing targeting human traffickers with “concrete, military and police actions on the ground to trace back these networks.”
The French leader, who has made controversial calls on Libya previously and then rescinded them, said he was not “declaring war” but working with the Libyan authorities.
Libya has a U.N.- and E.U.-recognized administration, but in reality it is divided between rival authorities, several of whom oppose foreign intervention. Macron also sought to link migrant smugglers to terrorist networks.
The E.U. already operates a naval mission meant to combat smugglers off the coast of Libya. It is also training elements of Libya’s fractured coast guard, who have been accused of numerous human rights abuses.
European leaders, including Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, portrayed ending northward migration as a mercy. We must “support Africans to put a stop to illegal migration, so people don’t have to either suffer in horrible camps in Libya or … even being traded,” she said.
Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari said that Nigerians were being “sold like goats” in Libya for a few dollars. African countries have been promised development aid and security sector support in return for taking back Europe-bound migrants.
Europe’s Muslim Population Will Grow, Migration or Not
New research suggests Muslims will make up between 7.4 and 14 percent of Europe’s population by 2050. The Pew report looked at three migration scenarios – low, middle and high – to reach their estimates.
The current 5 percent Muslim population in Europe will rise despite migration, as on average European Muslims are younger than non-Muslims. Under the “high scenario,” where record flows in 2015 and 2016 continue, some 75 million people in Europe would be Muslim by mid-century.
The study was based on census data from 30 countries, including all E.U. members plus Switzerland and Norway.
While under even the high scenario the figures do not correspond to far-right rhetoric about a Muslim takeover, immigration looks set to continue to dominate politics across Europe.
Given the uneven distribution of recent migration flows, some countries would be more affected than others. Under the high scenario, the proportion of Germans who identify as Muslim would go from 6 percent to 20 percent and in Sweden from 8 percent to 31 percent.
Vatican Defends Pope’s Moral Authority After He Avoids Rohingya Issue
The Vatican has defended the Pope’s decision not to use the word “Rohingya” during a visit to Myanmar. Pope Francis met with Rohingya but did not publicly comment on their plight.
More than 600,000 people from the Muslim minority have fled into Bangladesh since August in the wake of a military campaign in Rakhine state.
Myanmar’s political leader Aung San Suu Kyi has lost her former hero status among human rights defenders due to her refusal to speak out over alleged “ethnic cleansing.”
Myanmar’s powerful military has the vocal support of the majority of Burmese after years of anti-Rohingya propaganda, and the Pope was asked by Catholics in Myanmar to avoid using the word.
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