Minsk–Benghazi flights raise EU alarm on migration
www.euractiv.com
A meeting in Ankara last Friday between Turkey, Italy and Libya to discuss migration suggests that Russia may not be acting alone

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3952271

Archived version

Russia appears to have teamed up with a Libyan warlord to trigger a fresh migrant crisis in the European Union

The European Commission is investigating a series of unusual flights from Minsk to Benghazi amid growing concern that Russia may be helping to drive a new wave of irregular migration to southern Europe, an EU official says. …

A sharp increase in the number of flights between Minsk and Benghazi, operated by Belarusian carrier Belavia, have raised suspicions in Brussels of possible coordination with Libyan authorities in eastern Libya – a region controlled by strongman Khalifa Haftar, who maintains close ties with the Kremlin.

“The frequency and nature of these flights raise questions about potential facilitation of irregular migration flows,” the EU official said.

Between January and June 2025, more than 27,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Libya, while over 7,000 reached the Greek island of Crete – triple the number from the same period last year.

Europe has faced a similar situation before. In the summer of 2021, Belarus was at the centre of a migration crisis on its borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Russia was believed to have been indirectly involved in that crisis, with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko playing a central role – facilitating the issuance of visas, organising flights, and transporting migrants from the Middle East and Africa to Minsk. Brussels now fears Moscow may be attempting a similar strategy via Libya, weaponising migration to sow division within the bloc. Ankara’s shadow

But Greece believes the EU is overlooking another player in the current crisis: Turkey.

Athens is alarmed by Ankara’s recent diplomatic overtures to both Libya and Italy. Last Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted a trilateral meeting in Ankara with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Libyan representatives to discuss migration and energy cooperation – a meeting from which Greece was pointedly excluded. Greek officials fear that the meeting marks a pivot in regional alignments, particularly given Turkey’s recent rapprochement with pro-Kremlin Haftar and plans to reopen its consulate in Benghazi.

Athens is also concerned by Ankara’s efforts to implement a controversial maritime border agreement with Libya, which ignores the existence of the Greek island of Crete.

The EU does not recognise the maritime deal, the EU official reiterated, noting that the issue was raised by the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, during her visit to Turkey last January.

…

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    167·
    2 days ago

    Hafta is not just backed by Russia. He is also backed by the UAE and France, among others, seeking to undermine Lybian stability and the internationally recognized government.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
      153·
      2 days ago

      It’s like people don’t know or care who destabilized Libya, or why.

    • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
      61·
      2 days ago

      Hafta is … also backed by the UAE and France, among others, seeking to undermine Lybian stability and the internationally recognized government.

      I am not an expert for Libya, so I may be wrong, but what does being “backed” mean? France and other may back Haftar as well in some way, for some purpose, but here we have Russia collaborating with a Libyan warlord to trigger a migrant crisis in the EU.

      Even if France and others back Libya, how does this relate to this issue?

      • DeathToUS@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        1 day ago

        “how does this relate to this issue?”

        European politicians benefit from migrant crisis and it also helps turn attention away from them. Everyone on lemmy should know that by now.

      • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
        9·
        2 days ago

        https://www.politico.eu/article/frances-double-game-in-libya-nato-un-khalifa-haftar/

        For his part, Haftar — a U.S. citizen and an allegedly CIA-trained estranged Gaddafi ally supported by an alliance of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as Russia — has made little secret of the modern French weaponry he has acquired despite a U.N. arms embargo.

        …

        Paris has been quietly involved at least since 2015 in building up the flashy uniformed baron of Benghazi as a strongman it hopes can impose order on the vast, thinly populated North African oil producer and crack down on the Islamist groups that have flourished in the ungoverned spaces of the failed state.

        In doing so, it has trampled none too subtly on the economic and security interests of its EU neighbor Italy, the former colonial power in Libya and the main foreign player in its oil sector. Rome has endured an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants across the central Mediterranean since a French-driven NATO air campaign toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, leaving post-war chaos in his wake.

        …

        Critics of France say potential “winnings” in reconstruction contracts and increased business for oil major Total provide one motive for its Libya policy. Haftar, who controls eastern Libya from his stronghold outside Benghazi, grabbed key oilfields operated by Italy’s Eni in the south earlier this year before turning his guns on the capital.

        …

        After the instability unleashed by the Arab Spring uprisings, the dominant view in government circles in Paris is that strongman solutions are the only way to keep a lid on Islamist militancy and mass migration, and tant pis (tough luck) for human rights and democracy.

        https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/7/12/libya-asks-france-to-explain-how-its-arms-reached-haftar-forces

        Libya’s United Nations-recognised government on Thursday demanded urgent answers after Paris conceded French missiles were found at a base used by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar whose forces are fighting to take over the capital Tripoli.

        …

        France’s defence ministry, confirming a report in the New York Times, on Wednesday said the US-made Javelin missiles discovered in June at a camp south of Tripoli had been purchased by France.

        But it denied supplying them to Haftar in breach of a UN arms embargo, saying French forces operating in the war-torn country had lost track of them after they were judged to be defective.

        The anti-tank missiles, worth $170,000 (150,000 euros) each, were seized when forces loyal to the UN-recognised government in Tripoli overran the pro-Haftar base in Gharyan, 100km south of Tripoli.

        Three of them were shown to journalists, including AFP reporters, on June 29 alongside Chinese-made shells bearing the markings of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

        The French ministry statement did not explain how the missiles were lost and the find is likely to boost suspicions that Paris is backing Haftar on the ground.

        https://www.ft.com/content/3b85dd0e-1f2e-40b0-b44b-947b7f75a03e

        France was the only European country deemed to be a supporter of renegade general Khalifa Haftar, who launched a more than year-long offensive on Tripoli to oust the UN-backed government. The dispute with Ankara has escalated as Turkey’s military intervention backing the Tripoli-based administration shifted the dynamics of the Libyan conflict, with Gen Haftar’s forces suffering a string of defeats in recent weeks.

        …

        When Gen Haftar launched an offensive in south Libya at the beginning of last year that preceded his attack on the capital, France publicly supported him. The foreign backing was considered to have at very least emboldened him to launch his assault on Tripoli. Months later, US-made Javelin missiles, purchased by France, were discovered by Libyan government forces after they seized one of Gen Haftar’s camps.

        …

        Although Gen Haftar has had strong support from Russia, the UAE and Egypt — all of whom have been accused of violating the arms embargo on Libya — France has struggled to find support for its confrontational approach from its Nato and European allies. Other European states view the Libyan strongman as the aggressor and the main barrier to a political resolution.

        Note that the UAE is also keeping the Civil war in Sudan going and aiding in massacres that could amount to genocidial acts in order to extract resources from Sudan. The UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are key allies to Israel in West Asia and North Africa, which further intertwines them and Russia with France in destabilizing the region and supporting grave violations of human rights and international law.

        • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
          62·
          2 days ago

          France has also provided tacit backing for Mr Haftar, which has resulted in a public falling out with Italy, which supports the UN-backed government.

          The two European countries see Libya as a key partner in stopping the wave of migration from sub-Saharan Africa.

          France, for example, carried out unprecedented air strikes on the LNA’s biggest opponents - Chadian opposition fighters - in the midst of battles in the south.

          Good article about Libya (as far as I can tell as a layman for this topic), but there are only three sentences that mention France. How does this relate to Russia’s cooperation with Haftar trying to cause a migrant crisis in Europe?

          • renzhexiangjiao@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            6·
            2 days ago

            no, it doesn’t relate to russia’s current affairs with Haftar, but the poster above asked for a proof that France and UAE are backing Haftar in the Libyan conflict, and that’s what the article I linked suggests.

            • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
              21·
              2 days ago

              It says that the two European countries (France and Italy) see Libya as a key partner in stopping the wave of migration from sub-Saharan Africa.

              Is there more about the France-Libya relationship than these three lines in an article that writes about another topic so that one can dig a bit deeper?

              And, if so, if France’s alleged backing of Libya’s Haftar has nothing to do with the Russia-Libya cooperation aiming at initiating a migrant crisis in the EU, why do we even bring in France into this discussion? Is it just as a means of distraction? Whataboutism? I don’t understand that.

          • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
            43·
            2 days ago

            How does this relate to Russia’s cooperation with Haftar trying to cause a migrant crisis in Europe?

            It relates as France is willing to work alongside Russian interests in North Africa, if France believes it to serve their own interests. Now it backfires and that was predictable. It also raises questions about France reliability in fending off Russian threats to the EU.

            More in general it raises question about the EUs conduct towards Haftar, Libya and North Africa in general, believing that war-lord slave-traders would be suitable “partners” for fending of refugees reaching EU countries.

            • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
              31·
              1 day ago

              It relates as France is willing to work alongside Russian interests in North Africa, if France believes it to serve their own interests. Now it backfires and that was predictable.

              What was predictable?

              France may or may not have collaborated with the Haftars in Libya, but if so, how was it predictable that Russia would collaborate with a warlord in Libya to trigger a migrant crisis in Europe?

              It also raises questions about France reliability in fending off Russian threats to the EU.

              As someone already said, all the governments cooperate at least in some areas, this may be sometimes wrong and misguided, but I feel raising the France’s Libya connection in this context and then claiming Russia’s move was predictable is a bit far-fetched.

              • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
                12·
                1 day ago

                Russia was collaborating with Haftar alongside France for years. Russia then using Haftar, once the hostility towards western Europe escalated, was predictable because it is run by Putin.

                • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgEnglish
                  1·
                  1 day ago

                  I am sorry, but this is almost hilarious. Russia runs a plot to trigger a migrant crisis in Europe, not France. I am far from being the French government’s greatest admirer, but this is really odd.

                  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
                    1·
                    1 day ago

                    So you think it is hilarious to arm the same warlord as Russia and then Russia using that warlord to turn on you?

                    Truly hilarious. No lesson to be learnt from that…

            • Quittenbrot@feddit.orgEnglish
              61·
              2 days ago

              It relates as France is willing to work alongside Russian interests in North Africa, if France believes it to serve their own interests.

              I’d say every country is willing to work alongside every other country and wherever if it believes it to serve their own interests.

              This is why Soviets and Nazis agreed to partition Poland together, this is why a few moments later the U.S. fought together with the Soviets against the Nazis. This is why Germany kept buying that cheap cheap Russian gas when their troops already paraded through the streets of Ukrainian Crimea and this is why Europe still trades with Russia despite the abhorrent war it is waging against Ukraine. So, where’s the news? Will you say the Soviets have their share of blame for the Nazi atrocities, as they cooperated with them in the beginning?

              Russia wants to destabilise Europe and hence reaches out to those people that help it achieve that goal. If it wasn’t Haftar, it would be someone else.