Jamal Zubya, the foreign media spokesman for the Tripoli-based Libyan government, one of two major factions vying for recognition as the real government of Libya, has warned the European Union that it’s refusal of recognition could eventually mean a deluge of Libyan refugees crossing the Mediterranean.
Zubya says the Tripoli government has been spending tens of millions of dollars annually trying to stem the flow of migrants, and that in the absence of formal recognition they should feel no obligation to continue “protecting the gates of Europe.” He says he has personally advised the government that, barring recognition, they’d be further ahead just renting boats and sending the migrants abroad instead of spending so much money trying to prevent them leaving.
In the dispute over the June 2014 elections, battles erupted between the Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters and other secular factions. The Brotherhood’s forces eventually won the battle in Tripoli and made this government, while the other faction relocated to Tobruk in the far east, and has acted as a “government-in-exile” ever since.
The Tobruk government is the one that the UN recognizes, and subsequently the one that the EU and the rest of the West tends to recognize, though in practice the Tripoli government holds more territory. That said, neither is hugely powerful, and the UN has tried to reconcile the two into some unity faction, a move that has so far failed.
In the absence of a unity deal, it is highly unlikely that the EU would unilaterally shift recognition to Tripoli, though this may fuel another round of calls, chiefly from Italy, to launch another war against Libya, aimed primarily at destroying any boats that might be used to send migrants abroad.
And how can we condemn an air war that's limited to the destruction of boats that would be used by a hostile Tripoli government to flood Italy with mass waves of invading migrants?
Like the whole of the refugee/migrant "crisis", this is tremendously helpful to the EU. Threats of floods of people are just the sort of thing to force the Member States together and to give them the political support for a common military force. Some people think that the "usual suspects" have been financing the flood of migrants in the belief that it would tear the EU apart and this may be part of that scam. In the normal working of human nature, people stick together in adversity and a renewed attack will reinforce that. The only real loser in Merkel, who has probably committed political suicide.
Just remember WHO is to blame here!
The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
and their policies funding Terrorist groups to overthrow Governments they don't like!
NO refugees before they got rid of Gaddafi, no refugees5 years ago out of Syria!
Time for Europe to seriously bite the bullet and actually tell it as it really is!
America is the DIRECT cause of the instability and the massive refugee problem coming from Africa and the Middle East!