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A Libyan coast guardsman during the rescue of 147 illegal immigrants attempting to reach Europe off the coastal town of Zawiyah, west of the capital Tripoli, on Tuesday. Photograph: Taha Jawashi/AFP/Getty Images

The Italian government is considering banning ships from Libya from landing at its ports after the arrival of nearly 11,000 refugees from there in the past five days.

It has been reported that the government has given its ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, a mandate to raise the issue formally with the European commission to seek permission for a drastic revision of EU asylum procedures.

One idea being discussed is denying docking privileges to ships not carrying Italian flags that seek to land in Italian ports, mainly in Sicily or Calabria.

The surge in the number of refugees reaching Italy prompted the interior minister, Marco Minniti, to fly back en route to Washington to address the crisis. An intense debate has raged in Italy about whether NGOs waiting to rescue people off Libyan coastal waters act as an incentive for people-smugglers.

The centre-right fared well in local government elections at the weekend, placing pressure on the left coalition government ahead of elections due by next year.

Both Germany and France have said Italy, after the closure of the Turkey route, has been left alone to fend with the refugee crisis for too long. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is proposing a Compact for Africa at the G20 designed to boost private sector investment in the continent, and reduce the incentive for Africans to try to migrate to Europe to escape poverty.

Mattia Toaldo, a Libyan expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations said: This is a panic measure and I would very much be surprised if it is legal. The law requires the rescue of people in distress on the high seas, and this self-blockade of Italian ports would leave migrants floating in the Mediterranean, including those in most NGO rescue ships.

It is most likely designed to force Europe to take some kind of other action. It also shows that the ideas tried so far have failed. It was first proposed that the Libyan coastguard take more action to push the boats back. It was then suggested the tribes in southern Libya act as detention guards and then it was proposed to take action in Niger. Nothing has worked.

The dramatic rise in numbers, prompted by good weather and a well-organised trafficking route also draws greater scrutiny to the plans prepared by Merkel for a long-term solution. Efforts to strengthen the Libyan coastguard by providing extra boats and training appears to have had little impact.

In the four days between 24 and 27 June, 8,863 migrants arrived, including more than 5,000 on Monday alone, according to the International Office for Migration. A further 2,000 people were reported arriving on Tuesday.

The June surge means comes after the arrival of 60,228 migrants in Italy by sea in the first five months of 2017, with 1,562 reported to have died on the central Mediterranean. The number of migrants from Libya this year is on course to exceed the 200,000 recorded last year.

There were 22,993 arrivals in May. Since the beginning of 2016, only in July and October last year were higher numbers of arrivals by sea recorded.

Nigerian is the first declared nationality of about 15 per cent of those arriving in 2017, followed by Bangladeshi (12 per cent), Guinean (10 per cent) and Ivorian (9 per cent).

Renato Brunetta of Forza Italia has pressed Minniti to block ships with migrants heading to Italy and ask the EU to allow them to be diverted to other Mediterranean ports.

Dr Merkel fears that long-term demographic trends mean 100 million Africans could be driven to Europe by climate change and poverty, and that European governments are unprepared.

Her guiding idea is to stem migration by combating poverty in Africa. Her specific initiative is to team up African nations committed to economic reforms with private investors who would then bring jobs and businesses.

Under the G20 compacts plan, an initial seven African nations would pledge reforms to attract more private sector investment. Leaders from these countries have been to Berlin to discuss the plan, meet investors and identify the practical reasons global finance shuns Africa.

Guardian service

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Italy considers closing its ports to ships from Libya - Irish Times

By

June 28, 2017, 8:39 AM EDT

Libyan oil shipments are poised to hit the highest in at least three years in the latest sign the North African country is managing to sustain a production revival.

Exports are on course to reach about 715,000 barrels a day this month, the most since July 2014, when Bloomberg began monitoring Libyan shipments, tanker-tracking data show. With relatively limited capacity to process that crude in its domestic refineries, the shipments have been moving in lock-step with production.

Libyas surging output is a key factor helping to undermine the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries efforts to reduce global supply and increase oil prices. The group met last week in Vienna to discuss how to deal with rising production in Libya and Nigeria -- both OPEC nations exempt from supply curbs -- rather than deepening output cuts by other members. U.S. production climbing to the highest since August 2015 has further derailed OPECs efforts.

Exports from Libya are recovering with Sharara, the countrys largest oil field, resuming output, as well as the fields operated by Wintershall AG. The country was pumping 902,000 barrels a day as of June 20, according to the state National Oil Corp. It would be the highest level since June 2013.

The NOC and Germany-based Wintershall agreed earlier this month to restart production in some areas, allowing for crude to flow again from the Agkhara deposit. The deal also allowed Libyas Sarah oil field to resume output, according to a person familiar with the situation. Sharara was pumping 270,000 barrels a day as of the start of last week.

So far this month, 30 cargoes comprising 25 Aframax-class tankers and five Suezmaxes have loaded from Libyan ports, totaling 20.03 million barrels, according to Bloomberg estimates. An additional five tankers are set to load in the coming days.

Italy is the most popular destination for Libyan barrels, accounting for 10 of Junes shipments. A further six headed to Spain, and two cargoes each were shipped to France, Greece, the U.K. and the U.S.

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Libyan Crude Gushes Into Tankers as Nation's Output Accelerates ... - Bloomberg

Call to all residents of Libya to reduce energy consumption The Libya Observer The General Electricity Company has pleaded with citizens, factory owners and companies to reduce their energy consumption as much as possible during the coming days. The company is doing its best to make citizens more aware in order to maintain some ...

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Call to all residents of Libya to reduce energy consumption - The Libya Observer

TUNIS Hundreds of fighters from Chad and Sudan's Darfur region are feeding off instability in Libya, battling for rival factions, seeking to build rebel movements and engaging in banditry and arms trafficking, Geneva-based researchers said on Tuesday.

Failure to secure peace deals and reintegrate rebels in Chad and Sudan has led to a "market for cross-border combatants" linking those two countries and Libya, said a report by the Small Arms Survey group.

With desert regions already crisscrossed by Islamist militants, people smugglers and arms traffickers, there is a growing risk of destabilization unless long marginalized communities can be integrated, it says.

The 179-page report largely focuses on the Teda, or Tebu, people inhabiting the Tibesti mountains in northern Chad that fringe the borders of Libya and Niger. They have played a central role in rebellions in all three countries.

Their most recent insurrection in Chad ended in 2011, but the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi the same year drew them in, providing easy access to weapons.

"This chaos attracts fighters - including armed opposition forces - from northern Chad and Darfur, and is already having repercussions in Chad and Sudan," the report said.

"The ChadSudanLibya triangle has once again become the center of a regional system of conflicts. A notable consequence of these conflicts has been the re-emergence since 2011 of a regional market for cross-border combatants."

Since 2012, a series of gold rushes from Darfur in the east to Algeria in the west had further destabilized the region.

FLUID MILITARY ALLIANCES

Chad and Sudan support opposing armed factions in Libya, where loose and shifting rival alliances have been battling for power since 2014, creating rival governments in Tripoli and the east of sprawling Libya. Rebels from both countries have mostly aligned with their respective government's enemies.

Competing Libyan armed factions frequently accuse each other of deploying mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa.

A U.N.-backed government that arrived in the Libyan capital last year was meant to unify warring factions, but has largely failed to exert its authority.

Some 1,500 Sudanese fighters may currently be in Libya, mostly deployed with forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar, said Jerome Tubiana, a co-author of the report.

About 1,000 Chadians are based with anti-Haftar forces, and several hundred more are either trying to stay neutral or are willing to work for either said, he said.

The report cited several examples of Chadian and Sudanese groups being stationed in the central desert region of Jufra, a recent flashpoint for fighting between pro-Haftar forces and their foes, and in Benghazi, where Haftar's forces have been waging a long campaign against Islamists and other opponents.

The report argued that military-focused efforts to stabilize the region are unlikely to work, calling for socio-economic policies to integrate the Teda.

"The Libyan crisis and the issue of a jihadist presence in the Sahara will not be resolved by a military intervention in southern Libya or by placing Western soldiers along porous and virtually non-existent borders," it said.

"The importance of the presence of the three states (Libya, Chad and Niger), not only militarily, but also in terms of providing services and development, cannot be underestimated."

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

MOSCOW/KIEV/WASHINGTON A major global cyber attack disrupted computers at Russia's biggest oil company, Ukrainian banks and multinational firms with a virus similar to the ransomware that infected more than 300,000 computers last month .

JAKARTA Indonesian authorities have imposed a travel ban on tycoon and politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who is building resorts to be managed by Trump hotels, over an investigation into allegations he threatened a prosecutor via a text message.

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Hundreds of fighters from Chad, Darfur feeding off Libya's turmoil: report - Reuters

18:51 Monday 26 June 2017

A bill aimed trying to get compensation for victims of Libyan-backed IRA terror had its first reading in the House of Lords on Monday the first step on its way to potentially becoming law.

The proposer of the bill UUP peer Reg Empey said the DUP has been supportive of it, and he likewise expects support from Labour and Conservative quarters.

However, he indicated he is disappointed not to have seen some mention of any bid to attain compensation for victims of Gaddafi-sanctioned terror in Mondays deal between the DUP and Conservatives.

The bill is called the Asset Freezing (Compensation) Bill, and was introduced to the House at about 3.30pm.

Its aim is to give the UK Treasury access to an estimated sum of roughly 9.5billion, made up of assets of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The money is held in the UK, and is frozen.

Gaddafi a major funder of the IRA was killed in 2011 as an uprising against him plunged his north African nation into turmoil.

Lord Empeys previous effort to pass such a bill fell due to the suspension of Parliament for the snap election.

The next reading of the new bill could come in autumn, he said.

People have to understand youve got to be persistent, he told the News Letter.

Lord Empey said he envisages that only a relatively small proportion of the estimated 9.5bn would be used to compensate IRA victims.

Longer term, he added he would like to see a fund set up to aid Gaddafis victims in the UK and Libya alike, with both governments plus western companies which have Libyan contracts paying into it.

Obviously, the biggest number of victims of Gaddafi are in Libya, he said, adding that he is not aiming for a smash and grab on the Gaddafi reserves.

However, he said he feels the Treasury is likely to oppose his bill, because they will not want to upset the reputation of the City of London as a place to bring money.

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New IRA-Libya compensation bill makes its first appearance - Belfast Newsletter