A plan for a voluntary evacuation of migrants in Libya government-controlled detention camps has been put at the heart of an emergency migration plan for Africa.
Leaders from the European Union and the African Union arrived for a summit in Ivory Coast on Wednesday vowing to take action following CNN’s shocking video footage of slave auction houses in Libya.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, described the abuse of migrants as “a crime against humanity” and said that the EU and AU would “launch concrete military and policing action on the ground to dismantle those networks”.
In an interview with France 24, Macron said he was not advocating sending foreign troops to Libya, adding: “It’s not about declaring war, Libya is a state in political transition ... but there’s reinforced police action that needs to be done to dismantle those networks. We’ll do it.”
He also called for “individual, financial and physical sanctions” against human-trafficking networks, which he said were closely linked to terror groups in the region.
The plan, which could see up to 15,000 people flown out of Libya, requires the government to allow the UN’s evacuation planes to land, as well as for source countries to come to a holding centre in Tripoli and take back their citizens. Migrants without documentation would be held until their case is resolved.
The EU is likely to provide the funding, which in effect dramatically speeds up a voluntary repatriation scheme already being run by the International Organization for Migration.
Opening the summit, the Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, said: “Given this wretched drama which recalls the worst hours of human history, I would like to appeal to our sense of responsibility to take all urgent measures to put an end to this practice, which belongs to another age.”
Some African leaders also expressed anger at the Libyan government, with the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, claiming it was appalling that his compatriots were being sold “like goats”.
In a rare press conference on Thursday, the Libyan embassy in London said every effort was being made to investigate claims of slavery auction markets, adding anyone found guilty would be charged under a 1953 law banning slavery.
Mohamed Alkoni, the Libyan charge d’affaires, insisted throughout his life he had “never seen or heard any signs of racism in Libya”, and added any proven allegations of slavery “is an act of an individual, and not a systematic practice”.
The practices, if proven, “contravene all the values, traditions and customs of the Libyan people”, he said.
No cases had been put before the Libyan courts prior to the CNN allegations, he said, suggesting that the news of the slave auctions had come as a surprise to ministers.
He also said the Libyan state lacked the resources to oversee the detention centres fully. “You are talking about a large number of detention centres and it is not easy to control them”.
