ROME: Italy has signed a deal with Libya, Chad and Niger to try to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean by beefing up border controls and creating new reception centers in the African nations.
A joint statement by the interior ministers of the four countries said they had agreed to set up centers in Chad and Niger, key countries of transit for migrants who travel to Libya and on to Italy from sub-Saharan Africa.
The statement, released Sunday after an Italy-organized meeting in Rome, said the new centers in Chad and Niger, and the existing ones in Libya, would live up to “international humanitarian standards.”
Rights groups have slammed the conditions of existing detention centers in crisis-hit Libya and questioned how the West can ensure such “international standards” are met and kept.
“Libyan legislation criminalizes illegal immigration so it is not clear how these could be reception centers and not detention centers,” Mattia Toaldo, a European Council on Foreign Relations expert, said Monday.
“The establishment of ‘reception centers’ in Niger and Chad is also questionable: is Europe outsourcing its border control to these countries? If so, in exchange for what amounts of money and coming from where?.”
Toaldo also questioned why the deal was made by interior ministers and how they hoped to follow through on a commitment to “promote legal economic development” as an alternative to the wealthy trafficking trade.
On Sunday the head of the United Nations refugee agency Filippo Grandi urged Libyan authorities to free all asylum seekers and refugees from its detention centers, slamming the conditions as “shocking.”
While promising to try to step-up the UNHCR’s presence, Grandi said it would take time for political and security reasons.
Libya has long been a stepping stone for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. People smugglers have stepped up their lucrative business in the chaos which has engulfed the country since its 2011 revolution.
Italy registered nearly 50,000 migrant arrivals by sea by mid-April, 97 percent of them from Libya, according to Rome.
The Libyan coast guard is believed to have picked up close to 6,000 migrants attempting the perilous crossing this year and returned them to Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Nigerians have made up the largest group of people fleeing for Italy since January. Two million people are teetering on the brink of famine in the country’s northeast, home to the notoriously ruthless Boko Haram.
The jihadist group launched an uprising there in 2009 which has since spilled over into neighboring Chad and Niger.
Italy inks deal with Libya neighbors to block migrants
Italy inks deal with Libya neighbors to block migrants
With Cuban ally Maduro ousted, Trump warns Havana to make a ‘deal’ before it’s too late
- Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return
- The government has said US sanctions cost Cuba over $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela’s leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as US forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country’s oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
Hours later, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, responded on X by saying “those who turn everything into a business, even human lives, have no moral authority to point the finger at Cuba in any way, absolutely in any way.”
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro’s capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
“Those who hysterically accuse our nation today do so out of rage at this people’s sovereign decision to choose their political model,” Díaz-Canel said in his post. He added that “those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should be ashamed to keep quiet” and he railed against the “draconian measures” imposed by the US on Cuba.
The island’s communist government has said US sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of an American embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
