EU to admit Africans from Libya

Member states and European Commission will meet tomorrow to discuss fate of thousands of Eritreans and other African nationals who have fled Libya.

A number of Africans who have fled the violence in Libya but cannot return to their home countries may soon be allowed to travel to the EU, Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, has said.

Speaking to reporters after returning from Egypt today (24 March), Malmström said that several member states were willing to consider relocating Eritreans, Sudanese and Ethiopians who are unable to return home for fear of persecution. She said that “a few thousand” Africans, most of them from Eritrea, were stranded in Tunisia and up to 270 were in Egypt.

Roberto Maroni, Italy's interior minister, had earlier this month said that Italy was in principle willing to receive around 2,000 Eritrean Catholics stuck in Libya, and small groups have since been evacuated to Italy. There have been reports of attacks by insurgents against sub-Saharan Africans who are suspected of being mercenaries for the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.

Under an Italian agreement with Libya that took effect early in 2009, Italy summarily returned Eritreans and other interdicted migrants to Libya without assessing whether they were in need of international protection. It is not clear whether the group now stuck in Tunisia includes such cases.

Click here to read the article in European Voice