EU funding to Libya: hundreds of millions to Tripoli for migrant 'protection' and 'repatriation

Over half a billion euros in just under a decade, destined for the most sensitive chapters for Brussels: the management of migratory flows and borders. These are the funds that the EU has poured into Libya since 2014, according to what a European Commission spokesperson told the Sole 24 Ore. The same source underlines that the EU resources have not been 'channelled' by the Libyan authorities, but 'implemented' through UN agencies, member states and international organisations. Among the initiatives activated are programmes for the repatriation of 'vulnerable migrants' to their country of origin and support for the administration of the coast, along packages of agreements that follow those signed by the EU summits with Tunisia (around 1 billion euro) and Egypt (7.4 billion).

Relations between Brussels and Tripoli, understood as the government of national unity (GNU) in power in the capital, were revived and expanded with the latest Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum, a summit organised by interim Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah on 17 July. Prominent guests included Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas.

The Libyan forum closed without additional financial commitments, but strengthened Tripoli's negotiating power vis-à-vis its EU partners. The overt ambition of the government of national unity is to 'not pay the price' of the migration crisis, a warning that can be interpreted as political and increasingly economic pressure on Brussels: the urgency of new funds and technical assistance for border control.

This would be nothing new, as EU money has already flowed into the country. According to a Commission spokesperson, the EU has allocated a total of EUR 465 million between 2014 and 2020 under the umbrella of its EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. In detail, the Commission says, half of the amount went towards 'support for the protection of migrants and refugees', as well as 'one third for community stabilisation in Libyan municipalities' and 'border control actions'. A second EUR 100 million tranche was mobilised by the EU summits between 2021 and 2023 within the scope of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe (Ndici-Global Europe), a mix of pre-existing financial instruments to facilitate economies that 'face development challenges'. Over half of the sum, 55 million, 'was mobilised for the protection and resilience of migrants'. Another 30 million financed programmes for the 're-integration of vulnerable migrants in their countries of origin', drawing in turn from a 60 million 'regional programme', while a 10 million segment went to border control institutions.

Now, as written by the Sole 24 Ore, Dbeibah can play the negotiation card of the migration 'crisis' in Libya, squeezed between rejections from Europe and the 'desire to migrate' of the people flowing into the North African country. Government authorities declare a total of 2.5 million 'foreigners' in the country, with between 70 and 80 per cent of them entering illegally. The management of flow control has triggered more than one alarm over human rights violations, in a climate of opacity fuelled by the country's internal fragmentation and abuses reported over more than a decade of instability. According to the International Organisation for Migration, a UN-linked organisation, Libyan forces intercepted and returned over 15,000 migrants to the country between January and the end of November 2023 alone. After returning to Libya, denounces the NGO Human Rigths Watch, they suffered "arbitrary and indefinite detention", in "inhuman conditions", at facilities "run by the government of national unity".