Libya’s Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj rejected housing illegal immigrants through the European Union’s migrant center plan.
“We are absolutely opposed to Europe officially wanting us to accommodate illegal immigrants the EU does not want to take in,” Sarraj said in an interview with German news publication Bild, according to Reuters.
The plan was proposed by Italy in June to calm tensions between western European countries, who are divided over how to process and handle the large number of people seeking asylum and entering as refugees.
Sarraj said Libya has already rescued people who cross the Mediterranean Sea in need of financial and technical assistance, especially when they endure hazardous trips on poorly made boats. (RELATED: Death Toll Surpasses 1,000 For Immigrants Trying To Cross Mediterranean)
French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned the EU that migration processing centers would only work if African countries organized them because many African countries were “worried that such centres [sic] would act as a pull factor for migrants,” the BBC reported July 4.
More than 1 million immigrants moved into Europe since 2015 and as of Wednesday, 51,782 migrants and refugees have crossed into Europe by sea, according to Reuters. A total of 1,490 people have died in 2018 while migrating by sea.
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