Amnesty International Condemns EU-Libya Cooperation On Forcibly Returning Migrants And Refugees To Libya

In a new report published on Thursday, September 24th by Amnesty International, the EU (as well as its member states) was criticized for supporting the Tripoli-based government of National Accord (otherwise known as the GNA) and its coastguard. This was in response to the GNA’s efforts to intercept refugees and migrants at sea, and take them back to Libya. The EU has reportedly backed a controversial agreement for Italy to finance and train the Libyan coastguard. They urged the EU to reconsider its cooperation over the “horrific abuses” that are being committed against refugees and other migrants in the North African country.

The oil-rich country has become a key route for refugees and migrants who want to reach Europe, following Libya’s chaotic decade. Since 2011, the country has been suffering the aftermath of the overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising. Subsequently, the International Organisation for Migration, amongst many others, has deemed it unsafe for migrants to be returned to the conflict-ridden country.

Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International claimed, “Instead of being protected, they are met with a catalogue of appalling human rights abuses,” when discussing the treatment of returning refugees. “Even in 2020, the EU and its member states continue to implement policies trapping tens of thousands of men, women and children in a vicious cycle of abuse,” she added. She urged the EU and its member states to reconsider their cooperation with the Libyan authorities, and make any further support conditional on the immediate action to stop horrific abuses against returning refugees and migrants who end up in Libya.

The report also provided detailed accounts of cases involving the illegal killings of refugees and migrants in Libya, in addition to enforced disappearances, torture, rape, arbitrary detention and the “forced labour and exploitation at the hands of state and non-state actors in a climate of near-total impunity.”

The evidence for the report is based on 43 people being interviewed. This includes 32 refugees and migrants, who have previously all been arrested at least once in Libya. Many of them reported having spent time in detention facilities without judicial rulings. They were also kidnapped for ransom and either tortured, raped, or refused food until their families secured appropriate funds, according to Amnesty International. One refugee, identified as “Dawit” said discussing the imprisonment, “For 15 days, they beat us with iron rods, they beat us with horses, they beat us with anything they have. They ask us to pay 6,000 Libya dinars [which translates to approximately £3450 at the official rate and £740 at the market rate],” regardless of whether they were an adult or a baby.

Another man discussed being abducted and held for ransom several times across the two years he was in Libya. He said, “One night at 3 am, criminals came into our home. They beat my wife. I fought back. They stabbed me in a leg and said ‘if you move, we shoot her’. They then kidnapped us and took us to a hangar [a large building with an extensive floor area, typically a warehouse or for housing aircraft] outside of Tripoli. They asked for $20,000 per person.” He continued, “There were either 16 or 17 people in the hanger – from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia. We stayed about 15 days… they beat people. When you arrive, they put you naked, beat the men and rape the women. After two weeks, I took a chance and ran away.”

On Wednesday the EU announced a long-awaited proposal for settling refugees and sending rejected asylum seekers home from the bloc. However, despite the barbaric descriptions in the report, Amnesty International said the EU did not pressure the UN-brokered GNA to respect the rights of refugees and migrants. Markus Beeko, the group’s secretary-general in Germany, said, “Despite regular promises by the Libyan authorities to take action against such crimes, most remain unsolved and unpunished.”

Driven by a desire to stop arrivals at all costs, it is believed that EU states have offered their support to Libya, without enforcing certain human rights guarantees for the refugees and migrants. Although Libyan authorities’ promise to investigate crimes against refugees and migrants, Amnesty International has said it has not led to virtually any accountability.

The European Commission on Wednesday, sought to rally sceptical EU member states around a plan to better share responsibility for settling refugees and sending rejected asylum seekers home from the bloc. Other organizations have previously condemned the behaviour of the EU, with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in 2018 denouncing the cooperation between the two on migration as a “shipwreck of human values.” The organization urged Europe to change cooperation policies on immigration in the Mediterranean to give priority to rescue operations. According to the NGO, Europe needs to look beyond policies focusing on border security to prioritize rescue operations, providing effective protection and safe pathways for migrants.

The DRC said in a statement, “At both the upcoming EU-Africa summit in December 2018 as well as the EU-Arab League summit in February next year, deepening cooperation with third countries on migration will feature prominently on the agenda, and possibilities for agreements on migration management with North African countries further explored.” The EU approach was then predominantly based on “strengthening external borders with the view to stemming arrivals to the EU’s shores,” the statement continued. “While the strategy is delivering in terms of reducing migratory flows to Europe, it is a path that is subordinating protection responsibilities and that compromises the EU’s ability to advocate with States to uphold rights and standards.”

Such EU-Libya corporation has, and will continue to have “devastating consequences” on migrants, which will likely lead to a rise in the rate of deaths and disappearances of refugees and migrants and increased human rights violations in Libya

Hope Oxley Green

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