People smugglers in Libya may soon find it difficult to get their hands on dinghies as the EU seeks to make life more difficult for them.

Outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella told the Times of Malta that as things stood today, goods smugglers use to transport people from Libya into Europe – mainly dinghies, engines and material to reinforce the dinghies – could easily be exported from the EU.

“Those goods can easily be exported from the EU to Libya and directly reach the smugglers. What I suggested to my colleagues is that we establish a method of control over these exports to Libya,” Dr Vella said.

The move would allow the authorities to stop exports in cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the goods could end up in the hands of people smugglers.

The minister said Member States could not stop such shipments getting to Libya even if there were suspicions.

Insisting the measure would not stop the rampant people smuggling from the North African country, Dr Vella pointed out that disrupting the chain of exports would, at least, make it more difficult for smugglers to get their hands on the materials needed.

“The unfortunate reality is that, even with the significant naval assets being deployed, there is no way to be everywhere at the same time to save every life that is tragically lost at sea once the people are already in the water,” he said.

Dr Vella said the EU had different laws that controlled the export of goods to different countries, yet there had never been any attempts to control the movement of “everyday goods”.

“A lot of thought went into this proposal, and our plan is to ensure that legitimate trade is not negatively impacted. This is a new idea, and hopefully, EU member states agree that the administrative burden created by checking the export of these goods to Libya is worth shouldering in order to cut off the supply of these goods to human smugglers,” Dr Vella noted.

So far, feedback from other Member States was positive, with many already on board, Dr Vella said, adding that a final decision was expected soon.

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