Libyan Islamists threaten to help migrants to migrate towards Europe

Tripoli: self-reported the Islamist government of Libya issued a veiled threat to send “hundreds of thousands” of additional migrants to Europe if Brussels does not recognize.
Officials say they could rent boats to send a large number of Africans across the Mediterranean, massively adding to the numbers the borders of Europe has already reached.
The warning was made by a spokesman of the General National Congress of Libya (CNG) in an interview with the Daily Telegraph of London.
The Congress took control of Tripoli after fighting last year against forces loyal to the internationally recognized government. Two weeks ago, the two factions have rejected the terms of the UN-brokered peace agreement.
Zubia Jamal, spokesman for the foreign media of CNG, said Libya has spent tens of millions of dollars a year to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean, through the use of detention and repatriation programs. He said that if Europe continued to refuse to recognize the authority of CNG, the government could reconsider this policy.
“To be honest, I informed my government several times already that we should rent boats and send them to Europe,” he said. “We protect the gates of Europe, but Europe does not recognize us and does not want to recognize us. So why should we stop migrants? ”
Libya has long been an important transit country for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, but the numbers have increased thanks to the security vacuum that followed the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Last year, about 170,000 people arrived by boat from Libya to Italy. Between January and September this year, the figure was 130,000.