Libya’s UN-backed government has not accepted proposals by Rome aimed at cutting migrant and refugee flows to Italy and the two sides are “far apart” on the issue, Malta’s Foreign Minister said today. George Vella, whose government holds the rotating chair of European Union ministerial councils, said he would brief his EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday on a long conversation he held on Thursday on behalf of the Union with the Foreign Minister of Libya’s embattled, UN-backed Premier, Fayez Al-Sarraj. Asked by reporters about unpublished proposals which Rome has put to Al-Sarraj in an effort to curb an expected surge in people taking to boats in Libya in the hope of being rescued and taken to Italy, Vella said the Libyans were considering the ideas. He declined to detail the Italian proposals beyond saying that their aim was to reduce the flow of migrants and refugees.
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