Refugee agencies urge EU to greater migrant efforts in Libya

BRUSSELS – The UN’s refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration are urging the European Union to take urgent action to help migrants fleeing conflict-torn Libya or stuck in detention centres there.

In talks with EU interior ministers Friday, UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi and IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino called for “more urgency in the responses” to Libya’s challenges.

They say “Libya is not a safe place for disembarkation given the appalling conditions in the detention centres to which people are transferred. More support is needed for those trapped.”

The two lament that the EU still has no predictable method to provide migrant boats with safe harbour and share out the people aboard.

They say that “every boat adrift in the Mediterranean is further evidence that this simply cannot go on.”