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African refugees wait aboard the Golfo Azurro, the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue ship, to disembark at the Italian port of Reggio Calabria, on Feb. 25, 2017. Santi Palacios / AP

Immigration is dominating Italy's political agenda before elections early next year, with public opinion increasingly hostile to migrants. Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years.

Most sailed from lawless Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers. More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

Ships manned by charities have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year, compared with less than one percent in 2014.

Aid groups and some Italian politicians warn that migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard are taken back to inhuman conditions in detention camps on the Libyan mainland.

However, prosecutors in Sicily have opened investigations against some NGOs, which they suspect of collaborating with people smugglers, and Rome has proposed a Code of Conduct setting stricter rules on how the groups can operate.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that Libya's growing role in controlling its waters was curbing people trafficking and producing a welcome "readjustment" in the Mediterranean.

MSF's decision to halt its rescue operations was part of this positive process, he told the newspaper La Stampa.

Save the Children said its rescue ship, the Vos Hestia, would dock in Malta until it received assurances about the intentions of the Libyan authorities.

Libya was trying to increase the range of the waters its ships controlled from 12 nautical miles around its coast to 70 nautical miles, the humanitarian organisation said.

"The necessary pause in operations from charity rescue ships likes ours and others will undoubtedly put lives at risk," its operations director, Rob MacGillivray, warned.

Libyan coastguard officials have previously said they have rights over operations dozens of miles beyond the territorial limit of 12 nautical miles, without clearly detailing the claims to such rights or how they could be enforced.

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Aid Groups Suspend Migrant Rescues Over Libyan Threats - NBCNews.com

Despite continuing efforts of the Federal Government to evacuate stranded Nigerians from Libya, efforts which have been on since 2016 with over 2000 Nigerians assisted back home, more Nigerians still throng the North African country, Daily Trust can report.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations humanitarian agency, has been collaborating with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other agencies of government to return Nigerians back home.

From 2006 till date, no fewer than 42 trips have been carried out to bring back the stranded thousands of Nigerians, with virtually all of them recounting horrible experiences in Libyan detention facilities.

Most of them spent months and years in detention before help came to them while some died in the process, according to accounts narrated by the returnees.

The latest set of Nigerians evacuated from Libya arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) cargo terminal on Thursday with 128 making the trip. Six of them had medical cases with one having three gunshot wounds and was brought out from the airplane with a stretcher.

But the horrible tales have not helped to dissuade people from embarking on the trip.

An IOM official who spoke with our correspondent, said, More people are still going to Libya from Nigeria. They embark on the dangerous trip through the desert hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea to proceed to Europe. I dont know what they are doing in Libya because the country is battling with its internal security challenges. There are these militia groups involved in organized crimes against undocumented immigrants. And Libya at the moment is facing disintegration threat. When you say you are going there for greener pastures, can you achieve anything meaningful in that direction?

But a retired Assistant Controller General of Immigration, Alhaji AbdulMumeen Abdulmalik who spoke to our correspondent said Nigerians would continue to leave the country unless the government tackled the economic recession and lack of jobs.

People go outside the country to seek economic opportunities that are lacking here, Abdulmalik said.

The Zonal Coordinator of NEMA in the South West, Alhaji Sulaiman Yakubu who received the latest returnees on behalf of the Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, said the agency had stepped up enlightenment campaign on the risk of travelling to Libya.

We are also telling the youths that the Federal Government has put in place a lot of initiatives to empower the youths. We have the YouWin programme, we have the N-Power programme and others, Yakubu said.

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Despite massive repatriation, Nigerians still troop to Libya - Daily Trust

Libyas biggest oil field has reduced crude production by more than 30 percent in recent days and the Zueitina export terminal ceased loadings over the weekend, throwing the OPEC countrys output back on a downward spiral.

Output at the Sharara field was down to 200,000 barrels a day on Sunday, compared with 300,000 barrels a day about a week ago, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Workers were being kept from certain areas for their own safety after two company vehicles were stolen at gunpoint, the person said. Zueitina port ceased loading on Saturday after employees demanded better working conditions, according to Merhi Abridan, head of the workers union.

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Libyas crude output and exports reached a three-year high last month as fighting among armed militias abated and leaders of the countrys rival administrations agreed in principle on steps to unite the nation. Production had been on the decline for years due to clashes between armed groups and closures of fields. Libya was exempted from production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because of the instability.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. marker, was unchanged at $48.82 a barrel at 12:25 p.m. Singapore time. Brent crude, the benchmark for more than half the worlds oil, fell 7 cents to $52.03 a barrel.

An official for Libyas state-run National Oil Corp., which operates Sharara in a joint venture, wasnt available for comment. The field has experienced several brief shutdowns caused by different groups.It was closed for two days in June due to a protest by workers there. Pumping was interrupted for hours last week after armed protesters shut some facilities, the NOC said at the time.

The countrys crude production may be further hampered by the port halt. Zueitina is the export terminal of Zueitina Oil Co., a joint venture between NOC, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Vienna-based OMV AG, according to its website. Zueitina exports an average of six crude cargoes a month, each 600,000 to 630,000 barrels, according to Abridan, the union head.

Employees are demanding that Zueitina Oil and NOC pay 20 months of delayed salary, Abridan said by phone Saturday. They also want health insurance, annual leave, overtime and more port maintenance. Workers will not receive a tanker due to arrive at the port on Aug. 19 if their demands arent met, he said.

In 2015, Libyas NOC declared force majeure at Zueitina and said the port was closed for all exports due to a deteriorating security situation.Force majeure, a legal status protecting a party from liability if it cant fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, was lifted. Force majeure was lifted in November.

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Libyan Oil Supplies Disrupted by Security Threats, Shut Port ... - Bloomberg

Updated / Sunday, 13 Aug 2017 11:24

German aid group Sea Eye has said it is suspending its migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, citing security concerns after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

The announcement comes a day after Doctors Without Borders (Mdecins Sans Frontires) said it was halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

In a statement, Sea Eye said it was with "a heavy heart" that it had decided to follow suit following the Libyan government's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

Tensions have been on the rise since the Libyan navy on Thursday ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal search and rescue zone, a measure it said was specifically aimed at non-governmental groups.

Libyan authorities have accused charities of aiding human smugglers with their rescues at sea, hampering efforts to crack down on the illegal migration route.

Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years, the vast majority setting sail from Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers.

More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

Charity boats have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year against less than 1% in 2014.

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, has also moved to rein in NGOs helping the multinational search and rescue operation by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

Sea Eye said it would continue to monitor the "changed security situation" off the Libyan coast.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Mr Buschheuer warned.

Six years since a revolution that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting the rescue operations, and Sea Eye says it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016.

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German NGO halts migrant rescue operation off Libya - RTE.ie

MOSCOW Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar was due to arrive in Moscow on Saturday ahead of a meeting with Russia's foreign minister, RIA news agency reported, citing a Russian negotiator.

UNITED NATIONS United Nations children agency UNICEF warned on Wednesday that more than half a million children in Libya need help and called on warring parties to end the violence and negotiate a political solution to the crisis.

DUBAI/SINGAPORE Saudi Arabia will cut crude oil allocations to its customers worldwide in September by at least 520,000 barrels per day, an industry source said on Tuesday, as the top oil exporter makes good on its pledge to help rein in a global supply glut.

BENGHAZI, Libya/TUNIS Residents of Derna in east Libya say they are facing critical shortages after Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) tightened its longstanding siege around the city last week.

BENGHAZI, Libya A blast hit worshippers leaving a mosque in the east Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, apparently targeting a key tribal ally of eastern based commander Khalifa Haftar for a second time, security and medical officials said.

(In this August 2nd story, corrects para 3 to show boat has not been moved from Lampedusa)

ROME Italy began a limited naval mission on Wednesday to help Libya's coastguard curb migrant flows, which have become a source of political friction before national elections expected early next year.

BENGHAZI, Libya A fighter jet from eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army was shot down in Dahr Al-Hamer district in Derna and its two crew detained, an air force spokesman said on Saturday.

BRUSSELS The European Union gave 46 million euros ($54 million) to Italy on Friday to help it protect Libya's northern and southern borders, part of the bloc's efforts to stem arrival of African migrants across the Mediterranean.

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Libya | Reuters