Dealing with Gaddafi’s gamble

A few weeks ago, during an event held to mark the 20th anniversary of Malta’s application to join the European Union, Eddie Fenech Adami revealed that it was German Chancellor Helmut Kohl who in 1990 had objected to Malta’s entry into the EU because of what he perceived were “Malta’s close ties to Libya”.

It was therefore quite ironic to read an article in the EU Observer last Wednesday reporting that Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini had said the EU will in November discuss a proposal by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who, during a visit to Italy last Monday, suggested that the EU should pay his country “at least €5 billion a year” to stop African migrants crossing the Mediterranean and avoid Europe becoming “black”.

Gaddafi was in Italy ostensibly to celebrate the second anniversary of a friendship treaty between Libya and Italy. Under the treaty, Italy had agreed to pay Libya $5 billion in the form of infrastructure investments over 25 years as compensation for the colonial period. In return, Tripoli allows Italy to take part in sea patrols off the country’s coast from where Africans attempt to get to Europe.

What we in Malta know, of course, is that since this ‘arrangement’ was concocted between Italy and Libya, there has been a dramatic fall in the number of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya.

No wonder that many in Malta feel Libya can at will close and open the floodgates that allow African immigrants to cross the Mediterranean.

People who are knowledgeable of what goes on in Libya readily accept that it has a very long Mediterranean coast – so long that Tripoli is nearer Valletta than Benghazi.

Controlling this shoreline might seem to be a gargantuan task for many, and Libya has in the past made some noises in this direction. Libya also has a huge land frontier through the Sahara desert, the main ‘gate’ of African migrants into Libya.

However, there should be no one doubts that the Libyan authorities are quite capable of controlling what goes on in their territory. Owning a boat in Libya requires a licence and finding so many boats to enable illegal migrants to cross the Mediterranean is no easy task. In fact, many think it is inconceivable for so many to leave Libya’s shores illegally without those who organise the trips getting a nod from somebody in the know.

Recent experience, in fact, should have removed all possible doubts that when the Libyan authorities take serious steps to stop this activity, it peters down to a trickle, if any.

Given this background, Gaddafi’s request for money to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to Europe smacks of blackmail. That is, in fact, how Alternattiva spokesman Arnold Cassola described the Libyan leader’s move, which was hardly an opening gambit in the chess game he continually plays with Italy and the EU.

Cassola was right when he said that rather than giving in to this ‘blackmail’, the EU should insist on Libya ratifying the Geneva Convention on human rights. Using human beings as a pawn in a political game as if their life is of no consequence is abhorrent.

Like Malta, Italy is a neighbour of Libya, and the long-term view about neighbouring countries is that they will remain neighbours forever while every regime or government must be temporary. Hence, neighbouring countries are to be treated with respect and tact, even when one does not actually agree with what their governments are doing. But this does not mean succumbing to undue pressure.

All this, of course, ignores the reason why so many Africans risk life and limb to go to Europe. They do so for economic reasons or for even more serious ones: political and religious persecution that qualifies them for refugee status in Europe.

Having these people’s efforts thwarted by Libya, whose record in respecting basic human rights is abysmal, and paying good money for it – as Gaddafi expects – would put the EU in the position of abetting and being an accomplice in blatant breaches of human rights on an enormous scale.

Supporting Gaddafi’s request, as our Foreign Minister intimated that Malta will be doing, is immoral and, once again, exposes this administration to the charge that for it, the end justifies the means.

The situation in the EU cries for a common, cogent and sensible migration policy in all the member states. Migration can be a source of much-needed labour, even though at this moment the economic circumstances in some EU countries has led to an abnormally high unemployment situation. One has to assume, however, that this is not a permanent situation and that Europe will get out of this problem sooner rather than later.

Rather than spending €5 billion annually so that oil-rich Libya does what it can easily do without any prodding, the EU would do well to invest that money in the migrants’ countries of origin so that the economic and political situation there improves to the extent that life in those countries becomes acceptable and bearable.

micfal@maltanet.net