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| Africa North |
| Libya coastguard intercepts 850 migrants: Navy |
| 2016-05-23 |
| [Al Ahram] Libyan coastguards said they intercepted seven vessels on Sunday carrying around 850 African "The coastguard in the west was patrolling the area off the Zawiya refinery (45 kilometres, 28 miles west of 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... ) and ... they intercepted seven large inflatables," Libyan navy front man Colonel Ayoub Qassem told AFP. He said the "The The chaos in the North African country since Moamer Qadaffy's fall in 2011 has been exploited by people traffickers, with thousands of The onset of better weather conditions has raised fears of huge numbers of people attempting the still perilous sea crossing. At the end of March, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian estimated that around 800,000 On May 13, a British parliamentary report said the EU's naval mission to combat people trafficking off the Libyan coast was "failing" and had only succeeded in forcing smugglers to change tactics. Operation Sophia "does not in any meaningful way deter the flow of Committee chairman Lord Tugendhat said the mission to patrol an area six times larger than Italia "was always going to present an enormous challenge". "The smuggling networks operate from Libya, and they extend through Africa. Without support from a stable Libyan government, the operation is unable to gather the intelligence it needs or tackle the smugglers onshore," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |