article_snippet.sent: Mr Gaddaf al-Dam added on BBC Radio 5 live: 'Let me remind you of something as well, which is that when Muammar Gaddafi's was still in power, there were periods when Muammar Gaddafi's simply allowed people to do exactly this, to get into boats and try to go to Europe –
article_snippet.sent: that was one of the ways in which Muammar Gaddafi's put pressure on Europe.'
article_snippet.sent: Experts have drawn links between the massive rise in would-be migrants and Colonel Gaddafi - whose people were forced to call The Lockerbie bomber the Guide' - but not for the reasons The Lockerbie bomber cousin insists.
article_snippet.sent: In 2008 Colonel Gaddafisought to stiff the European Union for £4.1billion a year in return for halting the flows of migrants in and out of Libya.
article_snippet.sent: In October 2010, the European Union paid Libya more than £30million to stop African migrants passing into Europe.
article_snippet.sent: The Libyan ruler's barbaric treatment of the would-be migrants was widely condemned. 
article_snippet.sent: The Libyan ruler's barbaric treatment of the would-be migrants was claimed The Libyan ruler officials would round up African migrants passing into Europe and hold African migrants passing into Europe for months or even years in horrendously overcrowded detention centres, where rape, violence and torture were common.
article_snippet.sent: As Blair's much touted 'deal in the desert' turned sour, Gaddafi gave people smugglers in Zuwara the green light to resume people smugglers trade and the migrant routes have flourished ever since.
article_snippet.sent: People smugglers are taking advantage of the subsequent chaos and confusion tearing Libya apart to ply People smugglers trade with little to no threat of being caught.