Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07TRIPOLI1030
2007-12-12 07:46:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tripoli
Cable title:  

SUDANESE DIPLOMAT ALLEGES LIBYAN OFFICIALS' COMPLICITY IN

Tags:  PREL KTIP SOCI PGOV LY 
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VZCZCXRO9547
PP RUEHTRO
DE RUEHTRO #1030 3460746
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 120746Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2910
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0944
RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0114
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 0373
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 0578
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 0528
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0683
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0354
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0379
RUEHVT/AMEMBASSY VALLETTA 0237
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 3346
C O N F I D E N T I A L TRIPOLI 001030 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2017
TAGS: PREL KTIP SOCI PGOV LY
SUBJECT: SUDANESE DIPLOMAT ALLEGES LIBYAN OFFICIALS' COMPLICITY IN
HUMAN SMUGGLING


CLASSIFIED BY: Chris Stevens, DCM, Embassy Tripoli, Department
of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



C O N F I D E N T I A L TRIPOLI 001030

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2017
TAGS: PREL KTIP SOCI PGOV LY
SUBJECT: SUDANESE DIPLOMAT ALLEGES LIBYAN OFFICIALS' COMPLICITY IN
HUMAN SMUGGLING


CLASSIFIED BY: Chris Stevens, DCM, Embassy Tripoli, Department
of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) The long-serving Sudanese DCM in Tripoli, Isaac Kenti,
told CDA in a recent meeting that Sudanese criminal networks
freely operate migration smuggling rings from Libya to Europe
with the complicity of some Libyan officials. According to
Kenti, while the GOL provides border guards and police with free
or subsidized apartments, cars, and food, the smugglers are able
to provide the one thing the Libyan government does not -- cash.
Laurence Hart, head of the International Organization for
Migration's Tripoli office, confirmed separately that law
enforcement and border officials are involved in facilitating
illegal migration.


2. (C) Kenti bemoaned the fact that up to 80 percent of
irregular migrants arrested in Europe after transiting from
Libya claim Sudanese nationality to bolster their asylum
applications. According to Kenti, only 20 percent of migrants
smuggled or trafficked into Europe are actually Sudanese
citizens. The rest claim Sudanese citizenship to decrease the
chance that they will be repatriated. He estimated that there
were currently about 500 Sudanese currently in detention in
Malta after having made landfall there.


3. (C) Kenti said that 50 to 70 individuals from sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia, who are smuggled by Sudanese criminal
networks to Europe, drown each month attempting to cross the
Mediterranean. Sudanese diplomats in Libya privately estimate
that between 300,000 and 400,000 Sudanese are resident and
working in Libya at any given time, although the number of
Sudanese in Libya has reportedly decreased with the levying of
new, punitive school-registration fees for non-Libyan children
this academic year.

MILAM