The Maltese MP in the Italian Parliament Arnold Cassola yesterday said that EU Commissioner Franco Frattini had informed him that as from next January 2008, Libyan police forces, possibly together with some Italian unit, should be patrolling the desert frontier between Chad, Niger and Libya under the EU flag, in order to prevent as much as possible the illegal traffick of human beings.
In a reply to questions by Arnold Cassola, Frattini stated that as soon as the present issue concerning the death sentence of the Palestinian doctor and Bulgarian nurses is solved in a positive way, the EU will be proposing a special bilateral treaty to Libya, whereby illegal migrants from Chad and Niger entering Libya through the land frontier would be repatriated under the aegis of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Frattini stated he has already had talks with Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and Italian counterpart Giuliano Amato on this issue.
The EU’s vice-president said that next October he will be presenting to the EU Council a draft directive on the “rights and duties of migrants” together with a Directive which will propose criminal action against those employers who illegally employ migrants, without giving them their basic working and social rights.