YouSaid · the spoken record

Swing

lines on the record
6
first
2017-11-28
most recent
2017-11-28
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “The majority of the people are probably economic migrants, but there will be many refugees in there, too, probably from Eritrea or maybe fleeing Boko Haram persecution in north- eastern Nigeria. I believe that we can move ahead with this plan rather quickly if we can get all of the agreements I am talking about. We will need help from Libya, and the Libyans have been very supportive on this. We will need help from the African Union, whose Chairperson has been very helpful. The European Union has also been very helpful. All of us feel the pressure, because this is an enormous human tragedy. We can stop it if we talk in practical terms and put into place the programme that I have just described. I am happy to take questions on it, but this is one, I believe, where the elements are coming together in a rather favourable manner.”

    2017-11-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8114 (2017) · source

  2. “We have assurances in that respect, and we can augment it as we go along. The key thing is to come up with an agreement that we all believe is in our common interest and where everybody comes out a winner. We will then need commitments on the part of the source countries to help reintegrate these migrants. They may come back with a little money in their pockets to get life started again, but they will need the commitment of their home countries to helping them to reintegrate so that they do not have to take off on an irregular migration route again. The elements are there. We are ready to go. Mr. Grandi and I have had conversations about it and we think we can work together.”

    2017-11-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8114 (2017) · source

  3. “The Libyans have been extremely helpful. We have used all Libyan aircraft up to now, but they are too few and too small. We are talking about large operations. We would obviously need to have the support of the African Union and the main source countries by sending consular officers to Tripoli, in particular, to help identify, register and provide travel documents to everyone so that we can then take them home. There will be some who will need a third country to go to until they can be properly documented, but for the vast majority - that is, those who want to go home, as we will do only voluntary repatriations - it can be done. We will need financing. I had good conversation about that yesterday. I think that the European Union trust fund that we are using for other purposes can also be used for this.”

    2017-11-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8114 (2017) · source

  4. “We have had good discussions with the African Union Chairperson and the High Representative of the European Union. Everybody seems to agree that it can be done. What we, the IOM. and its traditional partner, the UNHCR, plan and hope to do is to empty the 30 Government-controlled detention centres, with about 15,000 people still in them. We do not know how many of the militia groups have centres; we know they do, but let us focus on the Government effort now, because we will need Libya's help. We believe that, in very short order, if everybody is willing to help out and compromise, what we will need from the Libyans is an agreement that we can empty these centres. I think they will agree to that. We need them to give us overflight and landing clearances. We need to be able to bring in large, non-Libyan aircraft.”

    2017-11-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8114 (2017) · source

  5. “In my experience, it is rather rare to have all of the elements of a solution come together at the same time. Since the breaking of the story of the slave trade - in fact, we broke the story in April and it has now been carried forward in major media - it has all been about breaking up the smugglers' business model. We lost 5,000 people in the Mediterranean last year, and have lost 3,000 this year. We put out a press release on that yesterday. We are all under pressure: the Libyans, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - our traditional partner - the African Union, the European Union and the source countries. We all want and need a solution, and I believe that, frankly, all of the elements are there now.”

    2017-11-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8114 (2017) · source

  6. “Mr. Swing: I want to come at this issue from the angle that it is primarily about smugglers and making money. We have been working over many years, since the fall of Al-Qadhafi in February 2011, to try to take people out of the detention centres, to improve the detention centres and to clean up the matter in a manner that would destroy the smugglers' business model. We have been able to take 13,000 migrants home from the detention centres this year - 8,000 from our centre in Agadez, in the Niger - rather than have them cross the Mediterranean. It is all about saving life, and that, I think, is why we are here today. We are not trying to stop Africans from getting to Europe. We are working with the African Union, the European Union and the Libyan authorities.”

    2017-11-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8114 (2017) · source