EU eyes more migrant-busting support to north Africa regimes

Continuously spooked by migrant arrivals from Libya, the European Commission is now seeking to further reinforce frontier borders with regimes throughout much of north Africa.

In a letter addressed to national capitals ahead of Thursday’s (18 June) EU summit in Brussels, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen cites Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia as among the countries it wants to either continue to support and – in some cases – further reinforce.

“This year we will prioritise border management, search-and-rescue capacities notably towards Libya, while continuing protection efforts,” said von der Leyen of Egypt, in the letter dated Tuesday (16 June).

Last year until October, more than 65,000 migrants departed from Libya and irregularly arrived in the EU.

But Frontex, the EU’s border force, says overall arrivals have dropped by some 40 percent in the first five months of this year.

With almost 12,000 people (primarily from Bangladesh, Somalia and Sudan) arriving in Italy from Libya, the EU appears to be reorienting its migrant-busting efforts.

Von der Leyen qualified those arrivals as “illegal” even though the vast majority of people from Sudan obtain asylum in Europe, followed by Somalians.

Many have no other means to get to Europe other than taking dangerous boat journeys across the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly 1,300 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean so far this year and possibly many more remain unaccounted for.

The commission’s extra push to drive down arrival numbers comes as new EU’s asylum-wide rules entered into force and as a newly minted far-right inspired deportation regulation promises to kick out more people than ever.

Most of those who do arrive in Italy end up elsewhere. The practice has aroused resentment among northern capitals against Rome and triggered unnecessary internal border checks, which the new asylum laws promise to resolve.