“We are trying to urge UNHCR and the EU to intervene, but the instigator of these anti-migrant policies underway in Libya is the European Union,” he told RNS. “Countries like Italy finance these militias to do the dirty work to prevent any potential migrants from trying to reach Europe.”
The problem has been exacerbated, Zerai said, by the Trump administration’s withdrawal of funds from U.N. refugee programs. “The UNHCR is very weakened due to a lack of funds after the political choices that Trump is carrying out in the USA, cutting funds to many U.N. agencies. So it is difficult for us to find solutions, too,” said the priest.
Zerai urged African churches to exert more pressure on the African Union to do all in its power to protect human rights and rights of migrants and refugees.
“Africa cannot continue to ignore the dignity and fundamental rights of its children that are systematically trampled in countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, all in an anti-African key to please the Europeans,” said the priest.
The same day that Libya announced its ban, it was reported that 500 migrants will be evacuated from the country to Rwanda under an agreement struck in 2019 by the AU, Rwanda and UNHCR to set up an emergency mechanism for evacuating refugees and asylum seekers.
This article originally appeared here.
