Libyan authorities on Sunday have buried the bodies of 46 migrants who had drowned at sea in one of deadliest incidents in the Mediterranean so far this year. Authorities said the bodies of the remaining 16 would be buried later.
Despite its record of abuses, Libya’s EU-funded and -trained coast guard is the bloc’s preferred partner to prevent migrants from reaching European soil. Having intercepted some 20,000 people in 2017 alone, the coast guard in the Mediterranean is efficient; it is not as good, however, at abiding by the law. InfoMigrants takes a look at the funding, training and questionable monitoring of the loosely organized force whose members are often former militia.
A controversial migrant detention center in Libya has reopened two weeks after an airstrike killed more than 50 people there. The United Nations had called for the compound located close to the front-lines of the country's civil war to be emptied.
In Tripoli, a group of migrants who were being held in the Zintan detention center have been relocated to a UN facility awaiting evacuation from Libya. There are still concerns for more than 5,000 detainees suffering ‘dire’ conditions.
The Libyan coast guard recovered the bodies of a woman and a child and rescued 73 people after a migrant boat sunk off the coast of Libya on Sunday. Up to 25 migrants remain missing.
The Italian interior ministry is expected to push forward with a decree that would fine charities that attempt to bring migrants to the country's ports. The UN has called the decree a "political attempt to criminalize search and rescue operations."
The Libyan Coast Guard has stopped three boats carrying 113 migrants trying to reach Italy in the past two days. The migrants have been taken to detention centers in towns west of Tripoli, according to UN migration officials.
While many lives have been saved, the EU is dropping a major part of its anti-smuggling operation Sophia, which helped save refugees stranded at sea.
The Italian government has confirmed the ''full legitimacy of Libyan rescue operations'' in the Mediterranean Sea in light of the opinion expressed by the European Commission that ''Libya can and must rescue immigrants at sea'' and can therefore be considered a safe port.
Human rights groups have warned that migrants and refugees that are sent back to Libya are tortured and held for ransom. A TV report now brings horrific new evidence to support the claim.
An analysis by the Italian secret services contained in a parliamentary report on migration flows shows that the drop in migrant arrivals on Italian coasts is due to the ''strengthened capacity of the Coast Guard'' in Libya and the ''sharp reduction in NGO ships'' in the Mediterranean.
The French defense ministry has announced that it will be giving six equipped boats to the Libyan coast guard. The ships are supposed to assist Libya's efforts to curb clandestine migration, the ministry said.