(supersedes previous)General Paolo
Serra, the military advisor to the UN special representative for
Libya Martin Kobler, said Wednesday the international community
must act to prevent an estimated 250,000 people from being
forced to flee from Libya by year's end.
"Last year 154,000 migrants left Libya," he told a joint
parliamentary foreign and defence commissions hearing. "Of
those, International Organization for Migration (OIM) figures
show 120,000 headed to Italy. January 2016 saw migrant numbers
almost double, from 3,000 to 5,200...(this means) we could reach
250,000 by year's end if nothing is done".
Serra also qualified earlier remarks about one million
migrants now in Libya.
"I did not mean to say that one million people ready to
take off for Italy are now in Libya," he told lawmakers.
"What I wanted to say is that before the (2011) revolution,
Libya had the capacity to absorb up to a million new immigrants
from Chad, Nigeria, the Sudan and so forth, who were prevalently
employed in construction. Today, security conditions in Libya
prevent the need for that workforce".
Serra also said there was a risk of terrorist sleeper cells
disguising themselves among asylum seekers landing in Europe.
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