Libya Herald | 29.04.2017
Libya refused international requests to strike migrant smuggling militias: GNA Foreign Minister Siala
By Sami Zaptia
Presidency Council / Government of National Accord (PC/GNA) foreign minister Mohamed Siala has admitted that Libya had received ‘‘international requests’’ to carry out ‘‘military strikes within Libya against militias’’ engaged in smuggling illegal migrants. But Libya had refused, he stated. Siala was speaking in London today during the recording of the BBC Media Action’s Hiwar Mushtarak (Joint Debate) programme for the BBC Arabic service. The episode, which follows a Question Time format of panelists answering a live-recorded studio audience, was debating the issue of Libya’s illegal migration.
The foreign minister, who was one of the panelists, conceded that Libyan militias were behind the illegal migration trade and that the international community knew exactly who they were and where they were based. They also knew their Thuraya satellite phones and listened to their calls. However, he said that Libya had ‘‘refused’’ to grant international requests to strike at them within Libya in order to ‘‘save any further Libyan bloodshed’’. Answering a number of searching questions from a majority-Libyan audience, Siala insisted that Libya ‘‘would not be Europe’s policeman”. Europe had “to accept its responsibilities. Libya must not defend Europe’s borders’’. He also suggested that Europe, rather than Libya, should pay for the proposed sophisticated electronic southern border security system. Weiterlesen »