The Libyan authorities have arrested almost 1,500 would-be migrants and deported another 1,600 during the month of June as part of the country’s campaign to stamp out illegal immigration, the country’s national security ministry has stated.

The ministry explained that last month 1,451 would-be migrants were arrested by the Libyan security services, while another 1,622 were repatriated to their countries of origin, without specifying any particular nationalities.

The North African country is a main point of transit for sub-Saharan Africans intending to reach Europe – many times unexpectedly finding themselves in Malta – and also ends up in many cases being a destination country itself.

The EU and Maltese authorities have been at odds with Libya over the country’s negligence of its search and rescue area, where migrants have repeatedly found themselves in distress since the migratory season began in earnest in May.

The announcement is a positive one and provides a glimmer of hope that the country is seriously considering cooperation and EU assistance along its 4,000-kilometre desert borders, in return for assistance in stemming the flow of such migrants from its northern coast.

The EU currently has at least two programmes of assistance for Libya in place. The first relates to a repatriation programme, that is being coordinated by the UNHCR, which has seen the EU assisting Libya in the repatriation of some 500 irregular migrants in just a few months.

The second deals with Libya’s southern desert borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger. A European Parliamentary delegation, headed by Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil, will attempt to iron out the details of possible cooperation and assistance during a visit anticipated this autumn. The visit follows a similar one in December 2005, also headed by Dr Busuttil, which dealt with Libya’s coastal frontier.

Libya has continually said it is facing serious manpower and equipment demands as it tries to cope with the flow of illegal immigrants into the south and out of the north of the country.

Throughout the 1990s, Libya’s open borders policy welcomed sub-Saharan migrants, whose cheap labour was needed to help repair the Libyan economy, devastated as it had been by economic sanctions. Now under increasing pressure from European governments concerned over Libya’s location as a major staging post for the central Mediterra-nean’s migratory route, the country appears to be changing its policies.

While efforts to secure coordination from the country in terms of allowing Frontex patrols, being led by Malta, nearer its coast have so far been unsuccessful, the EU has also attempted to rope in the rest of North Africa into the patrol missions.

In fact, the EU recently requested Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to join the patrols as part of the EU’s bid to limit trans-central Mediterranean migration, but has yet to publish a reply to the request.