On Wednesday, another 10 migrants drowned after being launched toward Europe in overcrowded and unsuitable craft by Libyan people smugglers. This bring to more than 600 the number of luckless people who are known to have perished this year. Hundreds more may have died unseen. Last year, over 3,770 migrants drowned in their attempt to find a better life in Europe.
The Europeans wring their hands. The UN-backed Government of National Accord and its prime minister Faiez Seraj deplore the illegal trade. Libyan civil rights activists call for its end. Meanwhile, some Libyan officials even blame the EU for setting up patrols off the Libyan coast designed to rescue migrants. They argue that this is actively encouraging the flow of migrants. As a result, people smugglers are sending them to sea with barely enough fuel to get outside Libyan territorial waters.
The open rubber dinghies and broken-down fishing boats are essentially unseaworthy. But since they no longer have to make the full 500 km to Italy’s Sicilian coast, there is no point in wasting money and resources on properly equipped and safe vessels. Human traffickers are charging luckless migrants $1,000 for a place in one of these death traps. They can get 250 victims onto one exposed and unstable raft. Go do the math. The criminals often no longer waste money on a satellite phone with a pre-programmed number so that the migrants can call for help.
One people smuggler went public last year. This former fisherman maintained that he was no different from an airline. He was taking people from one place to another where they wanted to go. He, of course, maintained that he looked after his “passengers” before and during their trip. He claimed that he was essentially a one-man operation simply helped by members of his family.
The reality is a great deal more sinister. The human traffickers bring migrants across the Sahara from a collection point at Sebha. At each point, more money is demanded. Sub-Saharan migrants are forced to work, robbed, raped and murdered in their hellish journey north. Many of these victims have responded to cynical publicity campaigns in their home countries, promising them everything except the terrible truth.
Nor are all these traffickers in human misery exclusively Libyan. But the majority are. And in Libyan seaports like Sabratha, Zuwara and Garabulli, this evil trade is dominated by armed militias, whose leaders are well known.
The international community has begun a campaign of sanctions against leading political players who are seen to be obstructing the UN-led peace process. There has been much talk about also acting against the human traffickers. But only talk. The EU this month extended the mandate of its Operation Sophia migrant force to take physical action against the people smugglers. It is supposed to have been gathering intelligence on the criminals over the last year.
Anecdotal evidence has it that militia chiefs laughed at the threat. So far their mirth would not seem misplaced. It is time for the EU to come down hard on these odious exploiters of human misery. Financial sanctions, interdiction of the supply of rafts and other craft, snatch raids and arrests have to be mounted. And most importantly, Libyans have to stop blaming anyone but themselves for these odious, murderous and seemingly endless crimes.
