By no means all migrants make it. An empty dinghy found off the coast this May. (Photo: Tom Westcott, Libya Herald)
At a meeting in Madrid on Thursday, EU member states agreed to join forces with Libya as part of the Seahorse Merditerraneo programme to stem illegal immigration into Europe.
The project, which in the next three years will involve the training of Libyan coast and border guards and the establishment of sophisticated satellite-based monitoring and communications, is based on the Seahorse Atlantico programme.
There, similar cooperation and systems saw the number of migrants intercepted at sea fall from 31,000 in 2006 to just 332 last year.
Yesterday’s interception by the Libyan coastguard discovered 207 immigrants, including Eritreans and Somalis, crowded into a wooden boat.
He said that all were escorted to Khoms where they were handed over to “the correct authorities”, adding that all were likely to be deported to their home countries.
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