A Franco-German deal to settle migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, was on Monday agreed. Fourteen European Union member Nations were at the meeting hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France, who once served in the French consulate in Lagos State Nigeria. Six others backed the deal in principle.
This deal is a U-Turn from the EU-backed deal Italy and Libya forged in 2017, to deter any vessel from crossing into Europe’s territorial waters. Expectedly, Italy, the main refugee stop on the Mediterranean route, shunned the talks, with Mateo Salvini, the country’s interior minister, telling Macron to come to Rome— the Italian capital if he wants to discuss the migrant issue. While Salvini keeps up his rhetoric’s, many Nigerians are held in a Libyan limbo.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which has since 2017, been helping to repatriate Nigerians and other Sub-Saharan Africans willing to return home, says Over 40,000 Nigerians are still trapped in Libya in transit to Europe. More than 500 of them have been cut-up in the battle for supremacy between Libyan war lord, Khalifa Haftar and United Nations recognised Fayez Al-Sarraj. Nine Nigerians were killed in an attack on a migrant detention camp— one of those holding refugees halted from crossing the Mediterranean by Italian funded Libyan militia. The IOM says some of them were registered and scheduled to return to their home state, before they were killed. Macron’s brokered sharing agreement, will give some of these persons running away from Sub-Saharan African territories like Nigeria, an opportunity to see what is on the other side of the fence they have been trying to cross.
“The conclusion of this meeting is that 14 member states have given their approval to the Franco-German document,” Macron said after talks on Monday.
“Of those 14, eight have enacted their co-operation, and their participation in the stable mechanism which would allow the commissioner to act on requests and the response of the eight member states in the necessary spirit of solidarity.” In response to the deal, Salvini twitted in Italian saying, “Italy does not take orders”, adding that if Mr. Macron wanted to discuss the migrants’ issue he should come to Rome, the BBC reports. Salvini, who is Italy’s deputy prime minister, has not hidden his distaste for migrants. Earlier this month, the BBC says he attended the closure of the Mineo Centre, which once sheltered up to 4,000 migrants. Macron has also kept up his pan European stance, telling anti-migrant territories like Hungary, Poland and Italy that they should not expect any cash from the EU structural fund.
However, Macron’s France needs to take a clear stance on the migrant crises. Libya political advisory body, the High Council of State, said on Thursday that France is among three countries funding Haftar’s attack on Tripoli, the Libyan capital. France can also deal decisive blows on people smuggling networks in the Sahara desert, as it maintains military bases in Niger Republic, Mali, as well as several other countries along the Libyan route. Yet, its army has acted blind to banditry across the once famed trade route.
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