EU-Libya talks needed to avert migrant flow

The EU should meet soon with Libyan authorities to try to avert the risk of an “unprecedented” migrant flow through the central Mediterranean, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warned Thursday. After the European Union launched naval operation “Sophia” in 2015 to crack down on traffickers sending African migrants on rickety boats from Libya to Europe, […]

The EU should meet soon with Libyan authorities to try to avert the risk of an “unprecedented” migrant flow through the central Mediterranean, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warned Thursday.

After the European Union launched naval operation “Sophia” in 2015 to crack down on traffickers sending African migrants on rickety boats from Libya to Europe, “it is time for a second step,” Muscat told reporters.

European navy ships “need to go in the territorial waters of Libya, obviously with the permission of Libya,” said the premier whose country assumed the rotating six-month EU presidency this month.