Laurence Hart, the International Organization for Migration’s Italy and Malta director, announced that there has been a significant increase in the flow of migrants from Libya to Italy. He cited a number of reasons for this, including a hunting moratorium imposed by the Libyan government last year, which led to an increase in the number of departures.
“99% of Libyan fishermen are Egyptian, and they found themselves unemployed and without resources overnight. In addition, the Libyan shipowners no longer have the opportunity to use their ships, which were bought by the smugglers or who became the smugglers after that,” Hart said, in an interview with Nova Agency.
The agency quoted data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, that “7,057 migrants arrived in Italy as of March 13, which represents an increase of about 80% compared to the same period last year.”