As refugees and migrants face murder, torture, and enslavement in Libya, 's government in Italy reups funding to force people back.
This is Europe in 2023.
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hrw.org/news/2023/02/0
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In its obsession to keep migrants and asylum seekers away from its shores, Italy pays for 10000s of people to be intercepted and returned to Libya, where they face abuses that the UN describes as possible crimes against humanity:
reliefweb.int/report/libya/r
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., Prosecutor of the , said in a statement in September 2022 that according to his office’s preliminary assessment, crimes against migrants in 🇱🇾Libya “may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
icc-cpi.int/news/statement
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Yet the Italian government keeps providing significant support to Libyan authorities despite these findings, countless reports by international human rights organizations, and repeated recommendations to suspend assistance.
hrw.org/news/2023/02/0
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On January 28, 2023, Italian Prime Minister visited Libya to sign a major gas deal with the country and declared that Italy will provide the Libyan Coast Guard with five “fully equipped boats”.
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The EU has allocated €57.2million for “Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya” since 2017, and announced plans in November 2022 to further increase this support. Its border agency also provides surveillance information used by Libya to intercept migrants.
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Assisting Libya’s coast guard, knowing that it will facilitate the return of 1000s of people to serious human rights violations, makes Italy and the EU complicit in such crimes.
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Efforts to provide legal pathways out of Libya are little more than a fig leaf, with only around 9,000 refugees evacuated to safety by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees () through an emergency mechanism since 2017.
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They certainly do not absolve Italy and other EU member states from their responsibility for the return of around 108,000 people to abuse in Libya since 2017, and for the deaths of migrants at sea or in detention by the hands of Libyan authorities.
![An overcrowded migrant boat, right, tries to escape from the Libyan Coast Guard in the Mediterranean Sea [Sea-Watch.org via AP]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn4BfXYWIAEaRpT?format=jpg&name=900x900)
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Italy and the EU should suspend this support to Libya, and ensure any future assistance is conditional upon Libyan authorities’ tangible progress in relation to the respect of migrants’ rights and their access to justice.
hrw.org/news/2023/02/0
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