Italian Senator Proposes 'Humanitarian Corridor' To Resettle Libyans To EU

Further deterioration in Libya might require an EU-wide humanitarian effort to "evacuate" and share out African refugees, Italian Senate's Foreign Affairs Commission President Vito Petrocelli told Sputnik

GENOA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2019) Further deterioration in Libya might require an EU-wide humanitarian effort to "evacuate" and share out African refugees, Italian Senate's Foreign Affairs Commission President Vito Petrocelli told Sputnik.

Fierce fighting for the Libyan capital of Tripoli has continued this week. Red Cross estimates that 90,000 civilians have been displaced, with tens of thousands being trapped in their neighborhoods.� � � �

"Should the Libyan crisis deteriorate further, it will... be necessary to open a European humanitarian corridor to evacuate throughout Europe those African civilians... who are trapped by fighting," Petrocelli said.

Europe has been grappling with a steady influx of refugees crossing the Mediterranean from impoverished and crisis-torn African countries, and their number is expected to rise as summer begins.

"We will not be able to continue to manage this flow in an emergency way, boat by boat, when they are dozens who arrive every single day: a fair automatic redistribution is urgently needed," he explained.

A group of lawyers last week accused EU member states, in a submission to the International Criminal Court, of causing tens of thousands to drown at sea with their reckless migrant policies.

The union switched from a successful Mare Nostrum maritime rescue operation at the height of the migrant crisis in 2014 to bilateral pacts with Turkey and Libya to stop migrants trying to reach Europe.

Petrocelli denied Italy was at fault but argued that abundance of rescue boats saving migrants at sea and bringing them to Europe encouraged people to make the perilous trip.

"No one... can deny that dozens of rescue ships, military or private, off the Libyan coast actually favor the work of human traffickers, who should be countered not at sea," the senator said.

But he stressed the situation would not be viable if Europe ignored the root cause of the migrant exodus and failed to address the crises in Libya and more recently in Sudan, where a political turmoil threatened to drive even more migrants into EU countries.