El-Sonni: Stable Libya 'five to 10 years' away
With three rival governments and the reluctant host to thousands of migrants making their way to Europe, Libya is in chaos. Will it ever unite for democracy? Taher El-Sonni meets Tim Sebastian on Conflict Zone.
Taher El-Sonni on Conflict Zone
"It is something that [a government cannot] easily handle on its own, even if we are united. It needs support from all over," El-Sonni told Conflict Zone, regarding his country's many troubles.
Six years on from the revolution that overthrew the decades-long dictatorship of Colonel Gaddafi, Libya's problems can hardly be overstated: with no legitimate central government, violence common and terrorism a continual threat, the conclusion of many - including in recent months France’s Foreign Minister - is that Libya is a failed state.
One million people in waiting
On top of all this, the main route for African migrants heading to Europe is through Libya.
"The situation of migrants crossing Libya was appalling during Gaddafi's era, but it has become diabolical since," said Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in September.
While stating his desire to establish centers to process migrants in Libya before people took "crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum", Emmanuel Macron in July put the number waiting to cross the Mediterranean there at between 800,000 and 1 million people.
Fewer migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean in 2017 than at the same time last year, but deaths in proportion to people successfully making the journey to Europe have almost doubled
For those that did manage to set off from Libya's coast, their treatment at the hands of the country's coastguard also came under fire from Al Hussein: "Like the militias onshore, [they] also sometimes beat, rob and even shoot the migrants they intercept."
Was this a situation El-Sonni – who worked for the UN for 17 years, specializing in crisis management – recognized?
"We don't shoot migrants. What we're doing is trying to apply our sovereign rules and regulations and by saving their lives and bringing them back. This is an international agreement. This is an EU-Libya agreement."
The EU's SOPHIA military operation, which involves the Libyan navy and coastguard, aims to "identify, capture and dispose of vessels and enabling assets used or suspected of being used by migrant smugglers or traffickers" in the Southern Central Mediterranean.
The EU says SOPHIA has saved 40,000 lives off the coast of Libya since it began in June 2015.
But there is grave concern too from the UN and NGOs for the lives of those thousands of migrants stranded in Libya.
Dr Joanne Liu, International President of Medecins Sans Frontieres, also in September wrote that the "detention of migrants and refugees in Libya is rotten to the core. It must be named for what it is: a thriving enterprise of kidnapping, torture and extortion."
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