Libya’s migrant-smuggling highway: Lessons for Europe

'Tackling Libya’s migrant smuggling highway', by ECFR Policy Fellow Mattia Toaldo, explores the lessons learned from Libya’s experience with migration and how they can be applied to Europe’s burgeoning migration crisis.

On Libya, Toaldo notes that while the eastern Mediterranean migrant route, through Turkey and the Balkans, has surpassed Libya in the intensity of flows in summer 2015, the numbers from Libya have remained high. And as the earliest emerging centre of migration in this current period of large-scale migration, he highlights the lessons that the Libyan experience has for European politicians grappling with the migration crisis more widely.

On Libya’s lessons for the wider migration crisis, Toaldo highlights:

+ The need for legal channels to Europe
+ Reception centres and hotspots: Think again
+ Re-admission agreements: Handle with caution
+ Challenge regional allies

On improving the situation in Libya, Toaldo recommends:

+ Working with Libyans on a different economic model for border communities
+ Engaging with local communities and local authorities
+ Engage with state institutions, including in Tripoli
+ Increase monitoring and international presence to protect human rights
+ Engage in intensive mediation to support Tebu–Tuareg de-escalation
+ Accompany political and economic strategies with a comprehensive law-enforcement strategy
+ Support Libyan national dialogue, but without illusions

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Valletta Summit on migration, 11-12 November 2015 / Informal meeting of heads of state or government, Valletta, 12 November 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/valletta-summit-on-migration-11-12-november-2015-informal-meeting-of-heads-of-state-or-government-valletta-12-november-2015/

ESO: Information Guide: European Migration Challenges http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-european-migration-challenges/

ESO: Background information: EU invites Turkey to the summit table http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-invites-turkey-to-the-summit-table/

ECFR: Policy Memo, November 2015: Libya’s migrant-smuggling highway: Lessons for Europe http://ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR-147_Libyas_Migrant_Smuggling_Highway1.pdf

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