Here even police and solders are reliant on smuggling.But Niger is now one of the EU’s five ‘priority partnership countries’, expecting some €610 million in development aid. It also hosts an EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) field office in Agadez, which provides local security forces with equipment and training.In November, the IOM – which monitors the transit in Agadez – saw the traffic drop from 72,000 in May 2016, to 12,000 in November. This was the kind of “concrete progress” the EU was waiting for But the real result was that migrants and smugglers were choosing alternatives to the routes: some more dangerous, leading to new anecdotal evidence of increased deaths in the desert.Now, by going ahead with the Malta plan, the EU leaders have all but declared Libya a safe third country. People fear that migration may change society as they know it.So far, the response of EU leaders has been disjointed and in order to keep the populists and far-right parties away from the seats of power, parties in government and mainstream parties want to keep asylum seekers away from the gates of Europe.Merkel’s decision to welcome more than one million asylum seekers in 2015 alone came back to haunt her party electorally, with the far-right AfD making significant inroads in last year’s regional elections.This has led to Merkel taking a more hawkish stand and other mainstream European leaders have followed suit.There is no easy solution to dealing with migration, especially as the situation in the Middle East and developing countries in Africa and Asia. However, as the UNHCR, IOM and many others have warned, disregarding human rights and striking deals with unstable and authoritarian regimes should not be used to win elections.The rise of anti-European nationalism will not be washed away by EU declarations of intent, as long as inequalities exist asylum seekers will find new ways of entering Europe.

Source: Libya Today February 06, 2017 07:52 UTC