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TEHRAN, Jul 23 - French President Emmanuel Macron called on Libyan authorities Monday to stop holding transiting refugees in detention camps and said buildings of the United Nations' refugee agency in Libya were attacked earlier in the day.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Macron did not elaborate on the attack he said was carried out on buildings of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
He said Libya should end the "confinement" of refugees and house in safe places those who reach the North African country.
Libya has become a major conduit for African migrants and refugees hoping to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
An airstrike on a detention center near the Libyan capital killed more than 50 migrants and wounded dozens of others earlier this month.
Macron met with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and the director general of the International Organization for Migration on Monday, after European ministers in Paris tried to find agreement on dealing with Europe-bound migrants who use Libya as a stepping stone.
The European Union has spent hundreds of millions of euros to equip and train Libya's coast guard and to improve the conditions of the detention centers.
Under a deal with the EU, Libyan vessels apprehend refugees and migrants setting out from the coast and take them back.
Macron announced that eight countries had formally signed on to a French-German initiative to cooperate in a burden-sharing mechanism and 14 assented to it.
Southern European countries like Italy and Greece have complained for years that they shoulder a disproportionate responsibility for arriving migrants.
"Europe isn't a la carte when it comes to solidarity," Macron said, with countries saying they don't want a Europe that shares burdens but are in favor of unity "when it's about receiving structural funds."
Absent from the closed-door meeting of EU interior and foreign ministers was Italy's populist, anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini.
He tweeted strong disagreement Sunday with letting France and Germany determine the bloc's refugee policy while nations like Italy are on the front line.
Source: AP
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