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Tripoli IOM, the UN Migration Agencys Director General William Lacy Swing returned to Tripoli earlier this week (1-3/08), where he reiterated that Libya remains IOMs top priority. In what was his second visit to Libya this year, Director General Swing along with Vincent Houver, IOM Deputy Director of the Department of Operations and Emergencies, Othman Belbeisi, IOM Chief of Mission in Libya and other IOM Libya staff met with the Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj.

The IOM delegation also met with several Government ministers, as well as representatives of the Libyan Coast Guard and the Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM).

Libya remains IOMs top priority and it is therefore important for me to be back in Tripoli so soon after my last visit at the end of March, said Director General Swing in Tripoli. The response from the Libyan authorities has been more than positive and IOM is fully committed to further support and collaborate closely with our Libyan counterparts.

This visit contributed to strengthening the way IOM plans and works together with governmental counterparts to ensure the delivery of tangible results in support of the Governments strategic priorities, Belbeisi said following the visit.

Whilst IOMs delocalized structure is built on a strong field presence with IOM staff all across east, south and west of Libya, an increasing number of international staff is anticipated to be back in Libya as soon as possible.

Throughout the Tripoli mission, IOM advocated for the improvement of living conditions in the detention centres and alternatives to detention including open centres and safe spaces for women, children and other vulnerable migrants, registration of migrants following rescue-at-sea operations and the continuous technical cooperation to support local partners and Libyan officials.

During the visit, Director General Swing also met with, and wished 132 stranded migrants a safe flight home to Guinea Conakry. I appreciate the help provided by IOM and I am so happy to go home, back to my family, one of the children who received IOMs family tracing assistance told Director General Swing.

In order to reach IOMs goal to assist up to 12,000 stranded migrants with voluntary humanitarian return assistance in 2017, close cooperation with representatives of the migrants countries of origin is key. IOM Libya invited all diplomatic representatives for an open discussion on how to further facilitate consular procedures.

Director General Swing also met with the Deputy Special Representative and Deputy Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Maria Do Valle Ribeiro, during which they discussed IOMs scaling up and the continuous close collaboration with the UNSMIL. IOM Libyas donor countries also received a briefing in Tunis, during which the outcomes of the Libya visit, programme developments and the way forward were presented.

For more information, please contact at IOM Libya, Othman Belbeisi, Tel: +216 29 600 389, Email: obelbeisi@iom.int or Christine Petr, Tel: +216 29 240 448, Email: chpetre@iom.int

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Libya Remains Top Priority for UN Migration Agency: DG Swing in Tripoli - ReliefWeb

Misrata and eastern region's delegations met Thursday in Cairo, Egypt, under the auspices of Egyptian government after their meeting was not successful yesterday due to misconduct by eastern delegation members, who are loyal to the Presidential Council's boycotting member Ali Al-Gotrani, according to sources from Cairo.

Egyptian Committee for Libyan Affairs, headed by the Egyptian Chief of Staff, Mahmoud Hijazy, hosted for three days two delegations from Libyan eastern region and Misrata and then had discussions with each delegation alone, in addition to a joint discussion with both delegations without preconditions.

Reconciliation was on the table and reconsideration of the meetings results by each delegation's social circle was also discussed in the meeting.

They both also stressed on the respect of Libya's unity and sovereignty and on preserving the social fabric in the country, besides avoiding bloodshed and rebuilding Libya, discarding all kinds of foreign intervention and emphasizing the need to fight terrorism and extremism as well as criminal groups and outlaw militias.

The two delegations also agreed to build a civilian state that respects peaceful circulation of power, rejecting all kinds of elimination of any parties across the country, stressing the need for advocating calm in media outlets instead of the division and escalation campaigns.

They also urged for handing in all the fugitives and wanted people to justice and for supporting the fight on terror across Libya, finding at the same time ways to compensate people for the damages done due to such acts.

The Egyptian Committee for Libyan Affairs, headed by the Egyptian Chief of Staff, Mahmoud Hijazy, hosted previously two delegations from Misrata and eastern Libya, agreeing to hold a meeting for reconciliation under Egypt's sponsorship.

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Misrata, east Libya delegations meet in Cairo Thursday - The Libya Observer

A member of the self-styled Libyan National Army, loyal to Khalifa Haftar, rides in a tank through the rubble in Benghazi on July 19, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Russia says it has deployed no military specialists to Libya, denying media reports that claimed otherwise.

"There are no Russian military specialists in Libya. All talks and publications on the matter are not true," Lev Dengov, the head ofthe Russian contact group onintra-Libyan settlement, told Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Thursday.

The European Council on Foreign Relations published an article on its website on Wednesday, implying that not only Russian forces were deployed to the country but also there were Russian militiamen fighting in the battle.

The report referred to a particular Reuters report in mid-March, which claimed Russian special forces had been deployed to an Egyptian airbase on the border with Libya.

Dengov said in his statement that there were no individuals from Russia or other former Soviet states fighting in Libya.

"I met with a representative of the Libyan committee for state security who said that today there were no people coming from Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union," the official noted.

Supervised by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov, the Russian contact group is tasked with analyzing the situation in Libya, identifying key actors and players and engaging in dialogue with all parties to the conflict, according to Dengov.

Libya has been in a state of chaos since a US-led NATO military intervention in 2011, which led to a power vacuum after the death of the countrys longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Today, the countrys west is controlled by the UN-backed Government of National Accord, headquartered in the capital Tripoli.

The eastern part of the country, meanwhile, is governed by the Libyan parliamentwith its headquarters in the city of Tobruk.

The parliament is backed by the Libyan National Army headed by General Khalifa Haftar, one of Gaddafis senior commanders who switched sides during an uprising against the former dictator in 2011.

In December last year, Haftar went to Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks over the situation in the North African country.

Back then, the general said he was visiting Moscow to seek Russias help in the fight against extremists.

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Russia denies military presence in Libya - Press TV

Migrants wait to be rescued by the Aquarius rescue ship run by non-governmental organisations (NGO) "SOS Mediterranee" and "Medecins Sans Frontieres" (Doctors Without Borders) in the Mediterranean Sea, 30 nautic miles from the Libyan coast, on August 2, 2017.Angelos TzortzinisAFP/Getty Images

Italy approved a controversial new naval mission to stop migrant smuggling boats from leaving Libya on Wednesday, in an effort to curb the numbers of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

Italy's parliament voted to allow a limited naval mission to support Libya's coastguard in a bid to curb human traffickers, provoking a fierce reaction from the head of rival forces to Libya's U.N-backed government. General Khalifa Haftar, the rogue general who oversees the eastern part of the country, threatened to repel any naval vessel that enters national waters without permission from the army."

This follows an influx of more than 94,000 migrants arriving to Italy's shores this year, overwhelmingly from North Africa, which according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is slightly higher than the respective totals in 2015 and 2016. The numbers have strained Italy's network of reception centers and has led to a public backlash , which could fuel populist opposition parties in next year's general election.

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"(We will) provide logistical, technical and operational support for Libyan naval vessels, helping them and supporting them in shared and coordinated actions," Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said on Tuesday, ahead of the Parliamentary vote the following day.

The Italian naval vessel, the Comandante Borsini, entered Libyan waters within hours of the vote. Another vessel is expected to follow in the coming days, but Libya's eastern parliament affiliated with the forces of Haftar opposed the decision. It complained that the vote violated the country's national sovereignty and, according to Arab news network Al Arabiya, Haftar has ordered the bombing of Italian warships. The Italian government called the threat "unrealiable" and "unfounded," according to the news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia.

The Italian government initially hoped to send six ships to Libya's territorial waters, but plans had to be scaled down following popular protests in Tripoli, Reuters reports . Libyans have reportedly been posting images of Omar al-Mukhtar, a national hero who battled Italian rule in the early 1900s, on social media in response to the Italian presence reflecting the widespread unease over a former colonial power intervening on domestic affairs. Pinotti said that Italy had no intention of creating a blockade on Libya's coast.

Italian officials believe that sending the boats back to Libya will act as a deterrent, but rights groups are deeply concerned by the move. Refugees International, which is based in Washington, D.C., says returned migrants face detention and abuse at the hands of traffickers and even the coastguard. " It is no secret that migrants and refugees who are intercepted and returned by the Libyan coast guard face horrific abuses in Libyas migrant detention centers," Izza Leghtas, senior advocate for Europe at Refugees International, said in a statement. "By engaging in these operations, the Italian government would be knowingly complicit in these abuses."

Italian authorities also impounded a migrant rescue ship operated by German aid agency on Wednesday, stepping up tensions over the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that rescue migrants.

Many Italian lawmakers have suggested NGOs which patrol the seas to pick up migrants act as a virtual invitation to make the journey. Luigi di Maio, from the populist 5 Star Movement, likened aid-group's rescue ships to a migrant "sea taxi " around the same time in April when a Sicilian court suggested NGO's colluded with Libyan smugglers. It's a claim NGOs vehemently deny.

In July, Italy's center-left government threatened to close its ports to NGO's operating rescue boats that did not sign a "code of conduct." The seized ship, the Iuventa , is operated by German aid group Jugend Rettet, which is among six out of the nine aid groups operating search-and-rescue activities off Libyan waters to have refused to sign up to the code-of-conduct.

More than 2,200 people have been recorded as dead or missing this year. Aid groups say they are only fulfilling their humanitarian duty to save lives. Ambrogio Cartosio, chief prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Trapani, told reporters on Wednesday that no one has yet been charged and the investigation the German NGO was ongoing. "The evidence is serious," he said, Reuters reports . "We have evidence of encounters between traffickers, who escorted illegal immigrants to the Iuventa , and members of the boat's crew."

The IOM says that the number of asylum seekers entering Europe by sea in 2017 (through to July 30) is around 100,000 less than the same period the year before. Italy, however, receives the majority of migrants arriving in Europe due to traffic through the Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy's southern coast. The route has been dubbed the "deadliest" in the world by Amnesty International due to the thousands of people recorded as dead or missing in the attempt to cross the sea in flimsy rubber dinghies or rickety wooden vessels.

Italy's migration crisis is further compounded by its neighbors, like Switzerland, Austria and France, tightening their border controls in a bid to prevent migrants crossing the Alps. Italy, which was once a point of transit for migrants moving up to northern Europe, has become a place of settlement.

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Italy Has a Controversial New Plan to Stop Migrants Crossing the Med - TIME

The move is Italy's latest effort to counter the country's migration surge. According to the International Organization for Migration, 94,802 migrants have reached Italian shores so far this year, while 2,221 migrants have died attempting the treacherous Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy.

The Italian Parliament passed a bill on Wednesday that green-lighted Libya's original request for help, sent in a letter from the Prime Minister of Libya's UN-recognized Government of National Accord on July 27.

According to an Italian Navy spokesperson, the two ships -- a patrol vessel and a technical and logistical support unit -- could be deployed to Libyan waters as early as next week.

Libya is a popular jumping-off point for migrants hoping to reach European shores. Many of them are fleeing war and persecution while others are seeking better economic opportunities. The North African country is a well-established base for a human trafficking operation that sees smugglers operating with more ease because of the country's lack of effective central governance.

But some nongovernmental organizations are concerned the move will expose migrants to far more danger.

Amnesty International heavily criticized the initiative, saying that "deploying warships to police Libyan waters will expose refugees to horrific abuse," in a statement released on Wednesday.

Gauri Van Gulik, Amnesty International deputy Europe director, said: "Italy, along with other EU member states, should be focusing on increasing its search and rescue operations. Instead it has chosen to shirk its responsibilities and endanger the very people it says it is trying to help, including by providing military cover and support to the Libyan coast guard, whose reckless and abusive conduct against refugees and migrants during interceptions has been repeatedly documented."

It's the second move the Italian government has taken on migration in a week.

On Monday, Italy's Parliament passed a "code of conduct" for NGOs operating search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

The measure requests that NGO rescue boats take armed police onto their vessels in an effort to crack down on human smugglers.

Three of the eight humanitarian groups agreed to its terms. Doctors Without Borders refused to sign the code over concerns it could increase deaths at sea.

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Italy to deploy naval ships to Libya as migration crisis grows - CNN