The African-European Immigration Conference started on Saturday in Benghazi, in the presence of the Second Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Musbah Douma, the Speaker of the African Parliament, and the Prime Minister of the government designated by the HoR, Osama Hammad.
The opening of the conference was attended by a number of members of the House of Representatives and ministers of HoR-designated government, in addition to a number of African and European delegations participating in the work of the conference.
Hammad expressed his hope that the work of this conference will be successful in order to come up with a clear vision and specific goals as well as to agree on frameworks for real solutions to immigration issues in general.
He said that Libya and the rest of the North African countries are transit countries for immigrants and asylum seekers heading to southern European countries for various reasons. He stressed that illegal immigration is linked to many types of crimes and violations by smuggling and human trafficking networks that exploit illegal immigration routes to smuggle contraband and members of terrorist groups in the form of immigrants.
Hammad said that the responsibility falls on all involved parties in addressing the immigration issue, saying that urgent solutions must be taken, such as supporting and strengthening the capabilities of law enforcement agencies in source and transit countries to deal with human smuggling and trafficking gangs.
