Traffickers in Libya say migrant deaths at sea not their fault

Smugglers responsible for putting migrants to sea in inadequate vessels say the growing death toll is not their fault and that they do not force refugees to board any boat against their will.

After another deadly incident at sea this weekend, the spotlight is shifting towards the networks of people traffickers who charge as much as $10,000 for an entire journey, from blighted homeland to Europe, including the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

“We don’t force people to pay and go on a boat – that’s not our intention,” says Ahmed, who does not wish to give his full name. Drinking coffee on the shore in Tripoli, with his back to the sea and to the tragic events taking place on it, he adds: “We go to extreme lengths to make the trip worthwhile and with as little tragedy as possible.”

That comment appears questionable given the events of the past week in which more than 1,000 people have died or are missing feared dead, in two separate tragedies.

Smugglers say the demand for their service remains high, despite the discontinuation last autumn of Italian search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean called Mare Nostrum.

Ahmed said he was not aware of it in the first place.

"I've not heard of that. What is that – from 2009?" he said. "Many people would go on the boats, even if they didn't have any rescue operations. It's not going to stop. It's simply not going to stop. The borders in the south [of Libya, where most migrants first enter the country] are open, and there is always going to be an appetite for it."

Interviews with migrants this week in Libya, the primary springboard for illegal boat-trips to Europe, also suggest that the high demand continues.

In a migrant detention centre east of Tripoli, Eritreans rescued from the Mediterranean in recent days claim they simply had no other option.

Last year, Eritreans were the second-largest group, after Syrians, to take to the sea. And Bayin Keflemekal, a 30-year-old Eritrean nurse, argues that the brutality of the dictatorship at home, and the failure of neighbouring countries and international organisations to provide Eritreans with a safe haven, will continue to drive his countrymen to make the same trip.

“If the government won’t help us, if UNHCR won’t help us, if no one can help us, then the only option is to go to the smugglers,” says Keflemekal.

– (Guardian service)