Dr Emanuela Paoletti, a junior research fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, has an article in the electronic journal Pambazuka News discussing “Libya’s selective enforcement of restrictive immigration policies as a means of gaining foreign policy concessions from Italy.”
“Since the late 1990s, immigration from Libya to Italy had increased significantly, from less than 5,000 in 2000 to 30,000 in 2008. In May 2009, Gaddafi made his first trip to Italy, which was followed by a second visit on the occasion of the meeting of the G20. Concomitant with these visits, there was a drastic reduction in migration from Libya. From 1 May 2008 to 31 August 2008, 15,000 people arrived to Italy from Libya; in the same period in 2009 only 1,400 have landed on Italian shores. The Italian minister of interior, Roberto Maroni could recently announce, immigration from Libya in 2009 has decreased by 90 per cent compared to 2008. What explains the drastic decrease in ‘illegal’ migration from Libya to Italy?”
Click here for the full article.
MIGRANTS AT SEA 