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People trying to cross the Mediterranean are rescued by a Maltese NGO and the Italian Red Cross off the Libyan coast. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

NGOs who rescue people in the sea off Libya are encouraging the traffickers who profit from dangerous Mediterranean crossings, the head of the EU border agency Frontex has said.

Speaking to Germanys Die Welt newspaper, Fabrice Leggeri called for rescue operations to be re-evaluated and accused NGOs of ineffectively cooperating with security agencies against human traffickers.

Reopening a row with charities and leftwing groups, Leggeri said 40% of recent rescue operations at sea off the north African country were carried out by non-government organisations, making it impossible to check the origins of the migrants or their smuggling routes if the NGOs did not cooperate.

Luise Amstberg, refugee spokeswoman for the Greens in the German parliament, denounced Leggeris comments. The number of dead would be much higher without the tireless commitment of non-governmental organisations so we are indebted to these organisations, she said.

A spokesman for Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) said there was no evidence of a lack of cooperation.

In his interview, Leggeri said that under maritime law everyone at sea had a duty to rescue vessels and people in distress. But we must avoid supporting the business of criminal networks and traffickers in Libya through European vessels picking up migrants ever closer to the Libyan coast.

This leads traffickers to force even more migrants on to unseaworthy boats with insufficient water and fuel than in previous years.

He also claimed some NGOs cooperate poorly with EU security agencies, which makes it more difficult ... to gain information on trafficking networks through interviews with migrants and to open police investigations.

MSF labelled the charges extremely serious and damaging and said its humanitarian action was not the cause but a response to the crisis.

The UN has said nightmarish conditions in Libya are helping to drive a surge in the numbers of migrants attempting to reach Italy in the depths of winter.

European efforts to close the route are also thought to be behind a 30-40% increase in the number of mainly African migrants who have landed at Italian ports in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period in 2015 and 2016.

More than 2,700 people have been rescued in recent days, including a newborn delivered on a Norwegian police vessel, lifting the total arrivals for January and February above 12,000.

Also speaking to Die Welt, the new president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, proposed the EU should set up reception centres for asylum seekers in Libya, taking over the role currently played by smugglers and the state.

Tajani warned that unless Europe acts now 20 million African people will come to Europe over the next few years.

The proposed Libyan detention centres should not become concentration camps but should have adequate equipment to ensure refugees live in dignified conditions with access to sufficient medical care, Tajani added.

Conditions in more than 30 existing detention centres, both those run illegally by smugglers and by militias nominally on behalf of the Libyan ministry of justice, violate human rights conditions, the EU has said.

A leaked report from the EU external action service describes Libyan border management as in a state of complete disarray and unable to combat smuggling, adding smuggling is a low risk, high value source of income for organised crime.

Echoing the report, Leggeri added: There is no stable state. At present, we have virtually no contact at the operational level in order to promote effective border protection. We are now helping to train 60 officers of a possibly future Libyan coastguard. But this is at most a beginning.

He said work to train a Libyan coastguard to operate inside Libyan waters had only just begun. Overseas vessels are forbidden from operating in Libyan waters, and cannot send back refugees rescued in international waters.

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NGO rescues off Libya encourage traffickers, says EU borders chief - The Guardian

A Canadian man whose family is trapped in a militant-controlled area in the Libyan city of Benghazi has travelled to Turkey in effort to assemble an aid shipment for civilians in the conflict-ridden neighbourhood.

Ali Hamza, of Mississauga, Ont., says he's made the journey with his wife and four children in a desperate attempt to help his 76-year-old mother and five siblings who are among families he says are going without sufficient food, water and medical supplies in the area of Ganfouda. Libya has been beset by violence and chaos since the ouster and death of longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi in a 2011 civil war. The Benghazi neighbourhood of Ganfouda in particular has been besieged for months by Libyan army troops that answer to a powerful militarycommander.

Hamza has been calling on the Canadian government to speak out on what he calls a deteriorating situation, asking Ottawa to make a strong call for basic necessities to be allowed into Ganfouda and for the safe evacuation of besieged families through a neutralparty, in accordance with international law.

He also wants to see Canada express that it cares about the well-being and whereabouts of civilians who were promised safe passage and left Ganfouda in January. He alleges some of those people were mistreated and detained.

Global Affairs Canada says"Canada supports free and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance and for civilians who wish to leave to do so in safety."

Spokesperson Austin Jean says Canada is "deeply concerned" with the ongoing armed conflict in Libya and its humanitarian impact on civilians, including in the district of Ganfouda.

But Hamza says Canada can say and do more.

"I found nothing happening. I said I have to make a move," said the 50-year-old. "I made this journey to Turkey to make myself available with my family to take an action that saves lives."

Hamza said he's heard of civilians in Ganfouda having to resort to eating leaves and drinking rainwater as supplies run out.

He's borrowed money and put the family SUV up for sale in order to have enough funds to provide 30 families with food, water and basic medication for at least 10 days.

Two men walked beside destroyed buildings after clashes between military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government and Islamist fighters, in Benghazi, Libya in this February 2016 file photo. (Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters)

He's already met with a Turkish NGO known as the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation to discuss getting aid to Ganfouda and said theywere trying to work with him.

"They said maybe we can cover your needs," Hamza recounted. "I said 'please, please, please contact Canada, tell them that a Canadian family is with you' and maybe a co-ordinated effort will ease the permission to bring the aid [into Libya]."

Hamza is also seeking a meeting with the head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, who recently publicly expressed his concern about Ganfouda.

"Deeply worried by reports of families trapped in line of fire with no food and water in Ganfouda," Martin Kobler said in a tweet on Wednesday, adding that he called for safe passage to be allowed to civilians who wished to leave.

Despite a UN-brokered peace deal reached a year ago, Libya remains divided between east and west, with no effective government and rival factions and militias each side with backing from different foreign countries.

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Mississauga man sells SUV, travels to Turkey in bid to save family trapped in Libya - CBC.ca

MOSCOW Fayez Seraj, the Libyan Prime Minister of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli is scheduled to arrive in Moscow within days, Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

The visit is seen as a step towards overcoming a deadlock in the country between the Tripoli government and Khalifa Haftar, a military commander who is supported by factions based in the east of the oil-rich country.

"I think (Seraj's) visit may be paid in the upcoming days," Interfax quoted Bogdanov as saying.

On February 19, Seraj told Reuters he hoped Moscow might act as an intermediary between him and Haftar.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)

MANILA The Philippines condemned on Monday the "barbaric beheading" of an elderly German captive by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants who posted a video of the killing after a deadline for a $600,000 ransom passed.

GAZA Israeli aircraft carried out a series of strikes in Gaza on Monday, wounding at least four people, witnesses said, after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory hit an empty area in southern Israel.

SEOUL South Korean intelligence believes suspects wanted for the murder of the half-brother of North Korea's leader included several officials who worked for the reclusive state's foreign and security ministries, according to lawmakers in Seoul.

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Libya's PM to visit Russia soon: Interfax - Reuters

A refugee camp in Tunisia is filled with Libyan refugees | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

They should not turn into concentration camps.

By Gaper Zavrnik

2/27/17, 11:09 AM CET

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has called for the EUto setup refugee reception centers in Libya and to implement aMarshall Plan for Africa in order to curb migration to the bloc, Die Zeit reportedMonday.

The Libyan centers should not become concentration camps, but should have adequate equipment to ensurerefugees live in dignified conditions with access tosufficient medical care, Tajani said.

The Marshall Plan, inspired by U.S.financial support for the rebuilding of Western European countries after the end of World War II, should fund the launch of an education initiative, develop modern agriculture and set up joint ventures with two or more partners.

We either act now or 20 million Africans will cometo Europe in the coming years, Tajani said.

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Antonio Tajani calls for EU to open refugee reception centers in Libya - POLITICO.eu

Just weeks after the people of Libya found themselves subject to Donald Trumps travel ban, the countrys women experienced a terrible sense of dj vu.The military governor in eastern Libya, Abdul Razzaq al Nadhuri, appointed byGeneral Khalifa Haftar, decreed that women under the age of 60 could not travel outside the country without a male guardian.

The ban has prompted resentment and criticism online. Libyan human rights activists called the ban a gross violation of fundamental rights, in direct contravention of Libyas interim constitutional declaration, and made without authorisation, mandate or jurisdiction. In an extraordinary appearance on national television, the governor justified the ban on the basis that Libyan women represent a threat to national security.

After days of women protesting in the streets of Benghazi, the governor issued another decree cancelling the previous announcement, only to enforce a wider ban on all women and men between the age of 18 to 45. None can travel outside of Libya without a security clearance.

The justification this time was to stop Libyans from joining terrorist groups. This is quite bizarre given that after the revolution, the problem has been terrorist groups coming into Libya, rather Libyans joining them. Since the revolution, Libya has become a hotbed for many global terrorist groups like Ansar Sharia and Isis due to the lack of secure borders. With the continuous and uncontrolled flow of arms fuelling the civil war and the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, Libyans find themselves forced to travel if they can afford it to get even basic medical treatment. Libyan activists too have been forced to leave their country under the threat of terrorist attack and persecution.

Coming almost exactly six years from the start of the protests initiated by women in Benghazi that led directly to the Libyan revolution, the claim that women represent a threat to national security could perhaps be taken as a strange compliment to the effectiveness of womens political activism in Libya.

Though just as women had become symbols of a better future for Libya, two brutal acts came to symbolise the countrys fall into chaos. In June 2014, the lawyer and activist Salwa Bugaighis wasassassinated by gunmen after returning home from voting in the general election. Just three weeks later, Fariha Al-Berkawi, one of 33 women elected to Libyas parliament, was also gunned down.

Ever since, women activists and human rights defenders have been the targets of attacks and threats ranging from character assassination, to assault, to actual assassination. Civil society activists have also been subject to a systematic crackdown and repressive measures by the disputing governments of Libya.

As I write, civilians in Abu Salim, Tripoli, are under indiscriminate shelling as rival militias including those loyal to the internationally recognised National Accord Government continue to fight. While in the east, where the Libyan National Army now has the backing of Russia, we have seen the shame of the travel ban.

It is a depressing story that after a revolution fought for dignity, freedom and social justice, and all the lives sacrificed for these causes, Libyans are struggling for their basic human rights and safe corridors through violence.

This is yet another reminder of the failure of the international community in addressing the needs of countries in transition, instead applying the so-called democratic tool kit as a blueprint. Libya needed, and still needs, a comprehensive strategy that addresses the roots causes of its conflict unchecked militarisation.

If the international community continues to pay lip service to womens rights and a political solution without really addressing the real issue at stake, more womens rights defenders and human rights activists will be silenced, if not sacrificed.

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This is the other travel ban against Libyans that people aren't talking about - The Independent