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Libya asks Italy to arm migrant patrol boats
[NEWS24] Libya on Thursday asked Italia to arm the patrol boats it uses in the fight against illegal immigration across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe.

Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti this week handed over to the Libyan coastguard four patrol boats repaired in Italia as part of a cooperation deal against people traffickers.

Another six patrol boats are to follow soon after the training of their Libyan crews, he said.

"These boats are not fitted with arms. We can't used them for patrols when the traffickers are increasingly armed," Abdullah Tomia, a senior naval officer in charge of cooperation with Italia, told a news conference in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
"We've asked Italia to arm the patrol boats," he said, while noting that Libya was still under a UN arms embargo in force since its 2011 revolution that toppled dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse...
"Before the revolution, we were dealing with unarmed traffickers. But no we are up against fierce, armed gangs," Tomia said.

Libyan authorities have complained about lacking the means to deal with the floods of migrants colonists who try crossing the Mediterranean in makeshift boats.

Last year, a record 181 000 migrants colonists reached Italia, 90% of them from Libya.

2,300 migrants rescued off Libya: Italian coastguard

[AlAhram] Some 2,300 migrants colonists headed for Italia in 22 barely seaworthy vessels were rescued off the Libyan coast on Thursday, the Italian coastguard said.

Coastguard and military vessels joined forces with others chartered by humanitarian organizations to come to the rescue of the migrants colonists, who were packed into 10 wooden boats and 12 rubber dinghies.

"About 2,300 migrants colonists were rescued in the Mediterranean today," the coastguard said in a statement.

Prudence, a vessel chartered by medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres, picked up 770 people, many of them young children -- one a baby aged just six weeks, it said.

SOS Mediterranee's and MSF's Aquarius vessel rescued 560 people and Phoenix, chartered by Maltese NGO Moas, hauled in another 360.

Some 46,000 migrants colonists had reached the Italian coast this year even before Thursday's drama, around a third up on the same period last year, according to the Italian interior ministry.

At least 1,229 people have drowned making the perilous trip, according to the International Organization for Migration -- one death for every 39 persons rescued.

The latest wave of people picked up comes as Italia beefs up security ahead of next week's G7 summit at Taormina in Sicily.

The summit poses a challenge given that local authorities on the island have banned migrants colonists from disembarking at Sicilian ports.

Southern mainland ports or and those in the of Sardinia will instead take the strain.
Posted by: Fred 2017-05-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=488340