LIBYA: Libya's Sahara Desert borders with Algeria and Niger have turned into major crossing points for illegal migrants from sub-Saharan countries heading for Europe

Record ID: 348754

  • Title: LIBYA: Libya's Sahara Desert borders with Algeria and Niger have turned into major crossing points for illegal migrants from sub-Saharan countries heading for Europe
  • Date: 17th June 2014
  • Summary: GHAT NEAR LIBYAN-ALGERIAN BORDER, LIBYA (RECENT - MAY 25/26, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ILLEGAL AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS SITTING ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (French) ILLEGAL MIGRANT FROM NIGER, MUSSA, SAYING: "I work here because in Niger it's worse. I didn't like Niger. I came here looking for something to eat, a bit of money. That's how it is." VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF HOUSE OF ILLEGA
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Crime,International Relations,People
  • Reuters ID: LVABQJB25L8393OLR3UT7QW3NDV3
  • Story Text: Libya's southwestern tip in the Sahara Desert bordering Algeria and Niger has turned into a major crossing point for illegal migrants from sub-Saharan countries heading for Europe.
    Western powers and Libya's neighbours worry well-organized smuggler networks shipping anything from migrants to weapons are exploiting lawlessness in the remote south three years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi and might link with Islamist fighters roaming porous sub-Saharan borders.
    It has been always a challenge to seal Libya's more than 2,000 km long southern border, but growing turmoil has made the task of border troops much worse. Tripoli, some 1,300 km to the north, has reduced funding to border troops as it grapples with a budget crisis due to a wave of protests at oil ports, hitting hard an already ill-equipped force, officers say.
    "I work here because in Niger it's worse," said a man from the northern Niger who gave his name as Mussa. He left behind his wife and three children.
    A breakdown in security across Libya has also deterred tourists who used to come to Ghat to visit prehistoric rock art, killing the region's main livelihood. Unemployed tour guides, familiar with the border region, have become human traffickers.
    "We are suffering because of the illegal immigration. A large number of immigrants travel from Africa to Europe through Libya, so the people here are suffering a lot. Sometimes, most of the people in the area are illegal immigrants and most of them have no documents and health certificates," the head of the Ghat local council, Mohamed Abdel-Qadir said.
    Border officials say some up to 200 Africans cross the Ghat border strip every day, a nightmare for Europe dealing with an influx of migrants. At least 43,000 people reached Italy by boat from North Africa this year, mostly coming from Libya.
    Western diplomats worry southern Libya, where tribes call the shots, might become, if it is not already, a rest area or transit point for militants heading for conflict zones such as Egypt, Syria, Sudan or Mail. Islamist fighters have been roaming porous sub-Saharan borders ever since France launched a military campaign against radicals in northern Mali last year Algeria has closed the land border to Libya and tightened controls but an Algerian official said it was difficult to coordinate with the Libyan side. On the eastern border, Egypt has limited road traffic to Libya.
    Libya's army and police, still in training, is no match for smugglers helping themselves in a country awash with arms. An interior ministry force to combat illegal emigration has just about 150 men covering a border stretch of 600 km, according to officers.
    The forces, supported by regular army posts every dozens of kilometers along the border, patrol the border but lack equipment. They rely on decade-old Kalashnikovs and have only few satellite phones to coordinate their action.
    "We have a shortage of capabilities; the area is suffering from a shortage of capabilities because it lies in a large border region which is a link area between countries. It is a thousand kilometers; that is hard to monitor," Abdel-Qadir said.
    One army soldier, based in a camp sandwiched between sand dunes, said he had attended a training course in Turkey where he learned how to use a satellite monitoring system - which Libya doesn't have. Tripoli has signed a deal with an Italian firm to install such a satellite system but nothing has happened so far in the Ghat region.
    But it's not only migrants crossing the border. While smugglers guide them to Libya they ship the other way weapons, subsidized goods such as wheat, petrol or products fetching a higher retail prices in Algeria such as cloths.
    "From Niger to here? For here it was about 120,000 francs, in dinars, that's about 360 dinars," one immigrant from Niger, Nasser, said.
    Another problem is neglect from the central government paralyzed by political infighting. With oil exports down to a trickle, local authorities cannot run the detention centre for illegal immigrants anymore because Tripoli failed to send funds to pay contractors such as bakers or laundries, officers say.
    "We cannot find a place for the man who died; all the hospitals refused to receive him. The hospital also refused to receive people infected with malaria and a woman who had an abortion due to an internal hemorrhage. We were forced to send them to private clinics at our expense," said one member of Western Brigade, a militia group operating in the area.
    The cubicle building with bunk beds stands vacant, leaving African migrants to walk around unchallenged. They live in empty houses and queue every morning at the main street seeking jobs. Police cars drive by without stopping them.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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