Forward Thinking, in collaboration with the Order of Malta, convene a meeting of senior representatives from Tobruk and Tripoli. Order of Malta Magistral Villa, 8th October 2015

Forward Thinking, in collaboration with the Sovereign Order of Malta, organised a small roundtable meeting in Rome, at the Magistral Villa of the Order of Malta. The meeting brought together Libyan delegations from both Tobruk and Tripoli.The focus of the meeting was the challenges posed by the refugee and migrant crisis for Libya and the growing threat to the country’s stability stemming from human trafficking on Libyan soil. Shoko Shimozawa, Deputy-Director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) also participated in the meeting, to provide the perspective of the UNHCR on these challenges.The meeting identified some of key features of the crisis– from a humanitarian, political, economic and security perspective – and began to identify possible policy responses. Over the course of discussions several areas of consensus began to emerge between the two Libyan delegations. In particular, all agreed that the current European approach towards resolving the Libyan migration crisis was overly focused on military solutions and was likely to be counter-productive in the absence of a wider strategy. It was felt that sinking the smugglers’ vessels  (as some in the European Union have called for) without working with Libyan authorities to help to address the flow of refugees and migrants into the country, would be ineffective and would do little to help restore stability.Representatives from both Tobruk and Tripoli agreed there was a need for further meetings to discuss the refugee crisis and identify practical steps that could be taken.  It was agreed to work towards a conference that would be widened to include other relevant countries and institutions. Accordingly, participants began to formulate an agenda for such a conference.