THE GUARDIAN: Muammar Gaddafi's officials admits unseaworthy migrant ships are being allowed to sail as a protest against Nato air strikesThe Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is allowing thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants on to overcrowded, unseaworthy ships in an apparently calculated attempt to use migration as a weapon to pressure Nato and the EU countries backing Libya's rebels.
Libyan officials admit they are not stopping boats teeming with African migrants embarking on perilous journeys to Europe in protest at air strikes, which they say have destroyed the country's coastguard.
Turning a blind eye to people smuggling has had disastrous humanitarian effects, apparently leading to the deaths of hundreds of boat people during unsuccessful attempts to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa, Malta, and other parts of Europe.
Officials are still assessing the death toll from the sinking of an unseaworthy and overcrowded ship that is feared to have claimed hundreds of lives when it went down less than two miles off Tripoli last Friday.
Officials said they were doing nothing to encourage the journeys to Italy, but could see no reason to stop them, because doing so would serve the interests of Nato member states bombing Libya.
"We say to Europe that we can no longer do what we used to do," said the prime minister, al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi. "And that's because Nato has ruined our coastal defences." » | Martin Chulov in Tripoli and Simon Tisdall | Wednesday, May 11, 2011
