MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The draft plan, which will be considered during Thursday's EU Summit, outlines financial incentives for countries which prevent to-be migrants from fleeing their country and embarking on dangerous trips across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe, the report continues.
"Initiatives need to be taken to offer assisted voluntary return opportunities to migrants stranded in Libya and curtail dangerous journeys," the drafted plan said, as quoted by the EUObserver news outlet.
According to the outlet, the European Union's anti-migration Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean Sea plans to boost their support of the Libyan coastguard.
Europe's refugee crisis escalated in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa fled to the continent. According to the United Nations, the dangerous migration route is from Libya to Italy, where the UN estimates one in every 47 refugees dies.
The UN recently reported that migrants in Libya are subject to serious human rights violations and abuses, including torture, forced labor, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary detention.
