The incredible surge of migrants leaving the coasts of Cyrenaica is surely caused by economic crises and instability. However, recent reports point out that Saddam Haftar, son of Khalifa Haftar, is strictly connected to human smugglers and facilitators. A better look could shed light on the motives that push an influent and key figure towards illegal activities and criminal behaviour.
From Search and Rescue to criminal activities
At least one of the several ships used to smuggle migrants to Europe was bought by a Libyan national connected to Saddam Haftar. This is the case of the vessel named “Kefah 1”, that recently reached Italy with almost 800 migrants on board.
Analysing the history of the ship, interesting details came up.
“Kefah 1” ship was originally named “Clopea” and was built in 1968 in the United Kingdom. In 2016 the vessel was bought by the NGO “Seawatch” and sold in 2017 to another NGO “Mission Lifeline”.
Both NGOs used the ship as Search and Rescue (SAR) vessel. In 2018 it was sold to a Libyan national and named firstly “Nour II” and finally “Kefah 1”. Both these vessels were Libyan flagged.
Since this point onwards, the vessel abandons proper SAR duties and is employed by the Saddam “gang” for criminal activities. “Kefah 1” has been used mainly for oil smuggling and to recover other ships smuggling migrants that experienced engine failures or other technical issues. Those ships were towed to the coast of Cyrenaica. The migrants were saved but just to make them ready for another trip towards Europe.
How Saddam Haftar satisfies his needs.
Khalifa Haftar son needs money to satisfy his personal needs and to run his network of power. According to some events, it seems Saddam Haftar increases his criminal activities when in need of reinforcing the units of the Libyan National Army linked to him. In the latter resides the base of his power. In specific, when Saddam experiences issues in supplying his units, he resorts to illicit funding. This is highly probable the case of the seizing of the Dutch motorboat “Meerdijk”, boarded by a French vessel belonging to “Operation Irini” and escorted to the port of Marseille (France). All 41 military vehicles (type: FORD 2020 SUPER DUTY F SERIES 550) on board with Cyrenaica as final destination, were seized because of the infringement of the arms embargo. They were disembarked in the port of Marseille with the support of the French authorities and moved to a military facility.
As consequence, the number of migrants leaving coast of Cyrenaica surged dramatically. The vessel used were similar to the “Kefiah 1” and the same units belonging to LNA supposed to counter illegal immigration were not active. The security vacuum created by an absent LNA allowed many vessels to leave Libya.
It will be very interesting to dig deeper and to look at the connections between Saddam Haftar and organized crimes, with a specific focus on human smuggling.
