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People trying to cross the Mediterranean are rescued by a Maltese NGO and the Italian Red Cross off the Libyan coast. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

NGOs who rescue people in the sea off Libya are encouraging the traffickers who profit from dangerous Mediterranean crossings, the head of the EU border agency Frontex has said.

Speaking to Germanys Die Welt newspaper, Fabrice Leggeri called for rescue operations to be re-evaluated and accused NGOs of ineffectively cooperating with security agencies against human traffickers.

Reopening a row with charities and leftwing groups, Leggeri said 40% of recent rescue operations at sea off the north African country were carried out by non-government organisations, making it impossible to check the origins of the migrants or their smuggling routes if the NGOs did not cooperate.

Luise Amstberg, refugee spokeswoman for the Greens in the German parliament, denounced Leggeris comments. The number of dead would be much higher without the tireless commitment of non-governmental organisations so we are indebted to these organisations, she said.

A spokesman for Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) said there was no evidence of a lack of cooperation.

In his interview, Leggeri said that under maritime law everyone at sea had a duty to rescue vessels and people in distress. But we must avoid supporting the business of criminal networks and traffickers in Libya through European vessels picking up migrants ever closer to the Libyan coast.

This leads traffickers to force even more migrants on to unseaworthy boats with insufficient water and fuel than in previous years.

He also claimed some NGOs cooperate poorly with EU security agencies, which makes it more difficult ... to gain information on trafficking networks through interviews with migrants and to open police investigations.

MSF labelled the charges extremely serious and damaging and said its humanitarian action was not the cause but a response to the crisis.

The UN has said nightmarish conditions in Libya are helping to drive a surge in the numbers of migrants attempting to reach Italy in the depths of winter.

European efforts to close the route are also thought to be behind a 30-40% increase in the number of mainly African migrants who have landed at Italian ports in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period in 2015 and 2016.

More than 2,700 people have been rescued in recent days, including a newborn delivered on a Norwegian police vessel, lifting the total arrivals for January and February above 12,000.

Also speaking to Die Welt, the new president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, proposed the EU should set up reception centres for asylum seekers in Libya, taking over the role currently played by smugglers and the state.

Tajani warned that unless Europe acts now 20 million African people will come to Europe over the next few years.

The proposed Libyan detention centres should not become concentration camps but should have adequate equipment to ensure refugees live in dignified conditions with access to sufficient medical care, Tajani added.

Conditions in more than 30 existing detention centres, both those run illegally by smugglers and by militias nominally on behalf of the Libyan ministry of justice, violate human rights conditions, the EU has said.

A leaked report from the EU external action service describes Libyan border management as in a state of complete disarray and unable to combat smuggling, adding smuggling is a low risk, high value source of income for organised crime.

Echoing the report, Leggeri added: There is no stable state. At present, we have virtually no contact at the operational level in order to promote effective border protection. We are now helping to train 60 officers of a possibly future Libyan coastguard. But this is at most a beginning.

He said work to train a Libyan coastguard to operate inside Libyan waters had only just begun. Overseas vessels are forbidden from operating in Libyan waters, and cannot send back refugees rescued in international waters.

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NGO rescues off Libya encourage traffickers, says EU borders chief - The Guardian