The new Islamist government in Libya has virtually given European leaders an ultimatum: "Recognise and help us or else we unleash millions of migrants to flood your countries."
Jamal Zubia, a spokesman for Libya's General National Congress party which seized the capital Tripoli last year, said they could order charter boats to transport poor migrants from all over Africa across the Mediterranean, the Daily Express reported.
"We are protecting the gates of Europe, yet Europe does not recognise us and does not want to recognise us. So why should we stop the migrants here?" Zubia said, virtually declaring that his government is "weaponising" the millions of Africans seeking to leave their war-ravaged land to seek new life in Europe.
Zubia said the Libyan government could remove border controls and police operations which, he said, are catching and preventing hundreds of migrants from crossing the Mediterranean Sea every day.
Europe is already facing a major crisis with the huge numbers of mostly Syrian migrants streaming into the continent from Greece and Italy. Any move by Libya to add to the problem could prove devastating to European governments, the Daily Express said.
Realising this, the new Libyan government appears to be employing a "crude blackmail" tactic to force European acceptance of its rule, the publication noted.
Zubia said the new Libyan government is fed up with "protecting the gates of Europe" when the continent does not recognise the legitimacy of his government.
"If we were not a responsible state, we would hire boats and send the migrants to Europe," he told the Daily Telegraph.
Zubia admitted that they are making a "strategic threat" to Europe which "I would not rule out us doing it one day."
Libya's current regime, which ousted the internationally recognised government in a military coup last August, has not been officially recognised by any country. It has no standing army, and is descending into a civil war waged by several Islamist factions including the Islamic State, the Daily Express said.
