Why is there conflict / forced migration in Libya?
The conflict is because the people are trying to overthrow the government of COlonel Ghadaffi which is a military dictatorship and has not allowed democratic elections since coming to power in a millitary coup over 40 years ago. The forced migrations are taking place because he is driving all the black African migrant workers and overseas students from sub Saharan Africa towards the sea ports, using them as human shields against NATO bombings. He has declared that he wants to flood Europe with migrants to further damage the European economy. The Sicilian Mafia is charging these poor people 400 eauros each to sail them to safety in Sicily – this is a crossing which should not cost more than 80 Euros, tops. They use old boats and they set off in a storm a few days ago, BTW, which resulted in 250 people drowning. However the majority of the migrants are voluntarily leaving and many of them are coming from Tunisia not Libya. We have about 5000 migrants in Lampedusa and Sicily now who have
