The Visegrád Group (V4 states) dedicated 35 million euros to support the Libyan coastguard and tighten security at Libya’s southern borders.
The V4 states, which are Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Solvakia, will use part of its Africa’s contributions to fund Libya’s southern borders and Libyan Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre along with the European Union.
The center is a project set up by the Italian Coastguard and funded by the EU in Tripoli to support the Libyan authorities in ending the illegal immigration flow and to help the Libyan coastguard to rescue Europe-bound refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.
Seven years of armed conflict in Libya have left its people with coping mechanisms that are rapidly eroding. Daily life has become difficult and hundreds of thousands of people have either been displaced or, on top of other nationalities, have illegally immigrated to the Europe, particularly Italy, through the Mediterranean.
In recent years, Libyan coastguard has rescued more than 80,000 people who had departed Libya for Europe.
In 2017, a deal between Italy’s center-left government and Libya was endorsed by European leaders to lower the number of immigrants arriving at Italy’s southern coast.
Under the terms of the deal, Italy agreed to train, equip and finance the Libyan coastguard as part of its effort to rescue and return migrants to Libya.
