E.U: get rotten ‘aid’ out of Libya
By Miriam Karmali From Freedom United
| Thousands of men, women, and children fleeing for their safety are being rounded up and thrown in appalling detention centers notorious for forced labor, human trafficking, torture, and even rape. And it’s all thanks to the E.U. and the Italian government. Both have poured money into supporting the Libyan Coast Guard and blocked NGOs from operating rescue missions,[1] while reports of groups of migrants drowning continue.[2] The Coast Guard’s rescues from the Mediterranean Sea look more like interceptions, with African refugees disappearing,[3] or being returned to Libya, where they face arbitrary, indefinite detention. It’s a strategy designed to keep African refugees and migrants out of Europe, and one that turns a blind eye to how the E.U. and Italy are spending millions of euros to fuel human rights abuses in Libya. It’s high time for the E.U. and Italy to cut funding for the Libyan Coast Guard, and we need your help in calling them out: |
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| The U.N. Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has stressed that Libya “is not a safe port” for the return of migrants and asylum seekers.[4] Even the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights called on Italy to “urgently suspend” cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard “until clear guarantees of human rights compliance are in place.”[5] “Those who survive [at sea] continue to be returned to Libya where they are arrested upon arrival or simply disappear,” said Stephanie Williams from UNSMIL. Furthermore, migrant detention facilities linked to the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and armed groups are “linked to trafficking of migrants and criminal networks, who extort money from the most vulnerable.”[6] This is not just about cutting funding for the Libyan Coast Guard – we are also calling for abusive migrant detention centers to be closed and for refugees to be evacuated from Libya to prevent further abuses. Alarmingly, according to UNSMIL there are currently 3,291 men, women, and children being detained in western Libya and 371 in eastern Libya.[7] Human Rights Watch has consistently reported that humanitarian assistance from the E.U. and Italy has failed to eradicate systemic exploitation in Libyan migrant detention centers.[8] As Judith Sunderland from Human Rights Watch states, “E.U. leaders know how bad things are in Libya, but continue to provide political and material support to prop up a rotten system.”[9] A crucial first step is getting the E.U. and Italy’s money out of this rotten system. |
1] https://apnews.com/article/italy-archive-malta-9615d7aea0a98bc7cce753cc5a12dce5
[2] https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/28113/several-migrants-drown-off-libyan-coast-again
[3] https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-libya-middle-east-tripoli-africa-48322c9b1a6c2a533c1114415f53b86a
[4] https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1074672
[5] https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/ommissioner-calls-on-the-italian-government-to-suspend-the-co-operation-activities-in-place-with-the-libyan-coast-guard-that-impact-on-the-return-of-p
[6] https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1074672
[7] Ibid.
[8] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/12/italy-halt-abusive-migration-cooperation-libya
[9] https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/21/libya-nightmarish-detention-migrants-asylum-seekers
