The Economist - USA (2022-01-15)

The Economist January 15th 2022 37

Middle East & Africa

CrossingtheMediterranean

An EU-funded horror story

T

he journeyof  the  Geo Barentswas  a
long,  tense  stand­off  punctuated  by
moments  of  frantic  effort.  For  weeks  the
ship,  operated  by  Médecins  Sans  Fron­
tières  (msf),  a  French­founded  medical
charity, bobbed in international waters off
Libya’s  Mediterranean  coast.  Its  crew
watched for boats full of migrants—as did
patrols  run  by  Libya’s  coastguard,  which
has  threatened  aid­workers  who  try  to
stage rescues. From time to time, the radio
would crackle with warnings. “You have to
sail away from this zone,” coastguard offi­
cials  would  say.  “Otherwise  immigrants
will see you and sail towards you.”
When they spotted a migrant boat, both
parties  would  rush  to  reach  it  first.  For  a
few  days,  the  Libyans  won  the  race.  With
the help of drones and manned planes cir­
cling overhead, the coastguard caught four
rafts  carrying  migrants.  After  a  week,
though,  the  msfcrew  picked  off  one  boat
after  another.  Soon  more  than  300  mi­
grants  occupied  every  inch  of  the  ship’s
decks:  Senegalese,  Sudanese,  Syrians—

many  with  horror  stories  of  their  time  in

Libya,  which  they  shared  with  the  Outlaw

Ocean Project, a non­profit journalism or­

ganisation  with  which  The Economistcol­

laborated on this story.

Since at least 2017 the European Union,

led  by  Italy,  has  trained  and  equipped  the

Libyan coastguard to serve as a proxy mar­

itime  force.  Migrants  who  reach  Europe

have  legal  protections,  and  aid­workers

and journalists to highlight their plight. By

working with the Libyans, the euhas in ef­

fect shifted its border controls hundreds of

kilometres south of the actual border, to a

place where no such niceties apply.

If the goal is simply to keep migrants off

European shores, the effort has been a suc­

cess.  Tens  of  thousands  are  intercepted

each year by the Libyans (see chart on next

page). The number of people reaching Italy

by  sea  fell  by  44%  from  2017  to  2021,  ac­

cording  to  the  International  Organisation

for Migration (iom), a unbody.

For  the  migrants  themselves,  though,

European  policy  has  been  a  disaster.  The

crossing  itself  has  become  more  danger­

ous. One measure of that danger, compar­

ing  estimated  deaths  with  attempted

crossings, increased from one per 50 peo­

ple  trying  to  cross  in  2015  to  one  in  20  in

2019.  Another  metric,  which  uses  arrivals
      in  Europe  instead  of  attempted  crossings,
      climbed  four­fold.  Tens  of  thousands  of
      migrants  who  cannot  reach  Europe  are
      trapped in squaliddetention camps in Lib­
      ya, subject to torture, forced labour and ex­
      tortion by their jailers. The euadmits it has
      little  control  over  its  partners—and  yet
      continues to pour money into the scheme.
      Libya has long been a jumping­off point
      for migrants eager to reach Europe. Muam­
      mar Qaddafi, the late Libyan dictator, used
      this to blackmail his European neighbours.
      In  2010  he  demanded  €5bn  ($6.4bn  at  the
      time)  from  the  euto  stop  migrants  from
      crossing  the  sea.  The  alternative,  he
      warned, was a “black” Europe. But Qaddafi
      would not live long enough to collect this
      extortion  payment.  He  was  booted  from
      powerthe  following  year,  in  a  revolution
      backed  by  nato and  several  Arab  states,
      and subsequently killed by militiamen.

TRIPOLI
Libya’s coastguard is notorious for abusing migrants, and flush
with European cash

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