EU to Cooperate with Egypt to Limit Illegal Migration from Libya

The European Union, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the French CIVIPOL agreed on a package of measures to enhance cooperation between the EU and Egypt to address illegal migration. (EU mission in Egypt)
The European Union, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the French CIVIPOL agreed on a package of measures to enhance cooperation between the EU and Egypt to address illegal migration. (EU mission in Egypt)
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EU to Cooperate with Egypt to Limit Illegal Migration from Libya

The European Union, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the French CIVIPOL agreed on a package of measures to enhance cooperation between the EU and Egypt to address illegal migration. (EU mission in Egypt)
The European Union, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the French CIVIPOL agreed on a package of measures to enhance cooperation between the EU and Egypt to address illegal migration. (EU mission in Egypt)

The European Union, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the French CIVIPOL agreed on a package of measures to enhance cooperation between the EU and Egypt to address illegal migration.

The EU signed an agreement with Egypt on Sunday for the first phase of an 80-million-euro border management program, a statement from the EU delegation in Cairo said, at a time when Egyptian migration to Europe has been rising.

The project aims to help Egypt's coast and border guards reduce irregular migration and human trafficking along its border, and provides for the procurement of surveillance equipment, such as search and rescue vessels, thermal cameras, and satellite positioning systems, according to an EU Commission document published this month.

Since late 2016, irregular migration to Europe from the Egypt's northern coast has slowed sharply.

However, migration of Egyptians across Egypt's long desert border with Libya and from Libya's Mediterranean coast to Europe has been on the rise, diplomats told Reuters.

From Jan. 1 to Oct. 28 2022, 16,413 migrants arriving by boat in Italy declared themselves to be Egyptian, making them the second largest group behind Tunisians, according to data published by Italy's interior ministry.

Egypt is likely to experience “intensified flows” of migrants in the medium to long term due to regional instability, climate change, demographic shifts and lack of economic opportunities, according to the EU Commission document published by Reuters.

The agreement for the first 23-million-euro phase of the project was signed during a visit to Cairo by the EU's commissioner for neighborhood and enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi.

It will be implemented by the IOM and CIVIPOL, a French interior ministry agency, and is expected to include the provision of four search and rescue vessels, Laurent de Boeck, head of IOM's Egypt office, said.

The document says that to date, Egypt has addressed irregular migration “predominantly from a security perspective, sometimes at the expense of other dimensions of migration management, including the rights-based protection migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.”

Cairo has always stressed its commitment to provide full protection to asylum seekers and refugees without compromising their freedoms.

The program will seek to develop the capacity of the Egyptian ministry of defense and other government and civil society stakeholders to apply “rights-based, protection oriented and gender sensitive approaches” in their border management, it said.



Kurdish PKK Militants to Hand over First Weapons in Ceremony in Iraq

PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
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Kurdish PKK Militants to Hand over First Weapons in Ceremony in Iraq

PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)

Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants will hand over their weapons in a ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant first step toward ending a decades-long insurgency with Türkiye.

The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its armed struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, Reuters said.

After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Türkiye and the wider region.

Around 40 PKK militants and one commander were expected to hand over their weapons at the ceremony in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, people familiar with the plan said. The PKK is based in northern Iraq after being pushed well beyond Türkiye’s frontier in recent years.

The arms are to be destroyed later in another ceremony attended by Turkish and Iraqi intelligence figures, officials of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, and senior members of Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM party - which also played a key role in facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision.

The PKK, DEM and Ocalan have all called on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's government to address Kurdish political demands. In a rare online video published on Wednesday, Ocalan also urged Türkiye's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage the broader peace process.

Ankara has taken steps toward forming the commission, while the DEM and Ocalan have said that legal assurances and certain mechanisms were needed to smooth the PKK's transition into democratic politics.

Erdogan has said his government would not allow any attempts to sabotage the disarmament process, adding he would give people "historic good news".

Omer Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan's AK Party, said the disarmament process should not be allowed to drag on longer than a few months to avoid it becoming subject to provocations.