Ever since the United States killed the dictator of Libya; Muammar Ghadafi, in 2011, the country has been falling apart. Libyans are frequently abducted, tortured, killed, and robbed. These consistent hardships have created a desperation for its residents to escape prosecution based off of location. There are significantly more than the 142,000 migrants and refugees currently documented as being inside Libya. This year alone there were 28,000 individuals who made it to Italy, another 1,000 didn’t make it. This leaderless instability has birthed opportunities for Armed groups to profit from this hopelessness. Various militant gangs have had much success in the smuggling business, seeing as people will abandon their families and sacrifice everything they have to see it out. This exploitation developed a counteraction by the EU which prohibited passage of migrants through Turkey into Greece. Libyans have now taken to saving up money for payment of these smugglers towards a passage across the Mediterranean to Italy. NATO is now retaliating with a proposition to have their own coast guard patrol these waterways.
Rather than try to prevent each possible way of a migration, NATO and the EU should look into fixing the very root of the problem: Why are Libyans so desperately trying to leave? and then Fix that problem. Although Ghadafi was an uncompromising dictator, he kept his country stable enough before the west instigated and toppled that security. And there is no argument that Libya is worse off now than it was before. It’s inevitable that migrants will find a way to relocate, regardless of our efforts to prevent it. Instead, we should do everything in our power to bring back safety to this damaged country, rebuild an infrastructure, and reestablish an effective government.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/hundreds-feared-dead-in-migrant-shipwreck-off-libya
For more on the ongoing migrant situation in the Mediterranean Sea here is the latest as of April 2016:
https://www.iom.int/news/mediterranean-migrant-arrivals-2016-near-135000-deaths-reach-418
Unfortunately the numbers are growing in recent weeks.
