Greek government officials meet with Khalifa Haftar in January 2020. Image: ΝΕΑ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ, CC BY-NC 2.0
A report by German journalist and activist Matthias Monroy, originally published on the German news site nd, reveals plans for the construction of an EU-funded Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Benghazi, in the eastern region of Libya controlled by General Khalifa Haftar.
The plan comes in response to an increase in migrant departures from the eastern coast of Libya, with people often heading for the Greek islands of Crete and Gavdos.
According to the nd article, an MRCC would serve as the base of operations for eastern coastal forces, allowing enhanced cooperation with the EU’s border force Frontex, and offering considerable international legitimacy for Haftar’s forces.
The plan appears to be in the initial stages, with start-up funding of €3m via the EU’s ‘European Peace Facility’ budget.
It suggests that Haftar’s years-long courting of European politicians is bearing fruit.
Haftar and his sons – both powerful officials in his regime – are known to be complicit in the widespread abuse, exploitation and murder of migrants, both on land at sea.
Up until now, Haftar’s eastern forces, which are formally opposed to the western-backed Government of National Unity in Libya’s western region, have not benefitted from EU support.
In recent years, however, the general has made overtures to individual EU member states as well as Russia. He has sought both material support and diplomatic recognition, with the latter leading to an embarrassing incident for the European Commission last summer.
Monroy reports that the MRCC will be spearheaded by Italy, one of the EU member states Haftar has most directly courted, and which is already a key player in EU cooperation with western Libyan forces.
The EU has a long-standing relationship with, and has offered extensive support to, coastal forces in Libya’s west – a group of inter-linked militias and semi-state entities known as the ‘Libyan Coast Guard’.
That support has backed up the forcible interception, mass abuse, kidnapping, exploitation, sexual violence, forced labour and even murder of people on the move in Libya.
Amid this, civil society in both Europe and Africa, as well as various members of the European Parliament and refugee advocates, have called on the EU to sever the relationship and stop emboldening the Libyan Coast Guard in its abuses against hundreds of thousands of people.
A complaint was recently filed with the International Criminal Court accusing the EU and member state officials of crimes against humanity in the central Mediterranean, though it remains to be seen whether the court will take up the case.
Rather than finally recognising the folly of supporting the Libyan Coast Guard’s abuses, it appears the main concern of the EU is that its support has not gone far enough.
Read Monroy’s full article in nd (German) or on his blog (English).
