EU defends Libya deal

The EU’s foreign policy chief has defended a deal to finance migrants camps in Libya.

Leaders agreed to send some 200 million euros to the Libyan government during a summit in Malta last week as part of strategy to to stem immigration from Africa.

“When the UNHCR manages to operate in a centre and then identifies someone as someone in needs and having the right to international protection,” said Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief.

“The UNHCR starts a resettlement program and those persons are resettled being it in Europe, being it in Canada or in the US, that I don’t know… or elsewhere in the world.”

The EU wants to help Libya’s coast guard to stop migrants leaving in the first place. Leaders also pledged to help with protecting its southern border.

But Libya has been ravaged by conflict since the fall of Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.

The UN-backed government doesn’t control all of the country; there’s a rival administration in the east. And the so-Called Islamic State also operates there.