The European Union will send additional ships to Libya.

Brussels, 3 February 2022(Lana) The European Union has announced that it will send three new search and rescue ships to Libya, hoping to send more ships there before the summer as illegal trans-Mediterranean migration activity is expected to increase

    "Europe will send three more new search and rescue vessels and two patrol boats after maintenance to Libya from the first half of 2022," said Henrique Trautmann, an official with the European Union's Expansion and Neighborhood Policies Authority.

 Libyan coast guard officials will visit Italy at the end of this month to test the new ships before sending them, she said.

   Libya's ability to prevent migrants and refugees from reaching Europe or drowning at sea remains not big, although it has improved over the past year thanks to European support, she said.

   New EU programmes in Libya "will focus on developing and promoting democracy and the rule of law in a politically divided country of about 20 million euros a year, to between 32-37 million euros," she added.

=Lana=