Hundreds of migrants have been picked up in the Mediterranean this month and sent back to Libya. All the migrants were taken to detention centers, where the UN migration agency IOM has warned they are at increased risk of human trafficking.
Italian authorities have assigned NGO rescue vessels Sea-Watch 3 and the Open Arms with almost 240 rescued migrants on board the ports of Taranto and Messina, respectively. Four EU countries agreed to receive the migrants, yet a binding quota system for the distribution of migrants rescued at sea is still not in place.
In a statement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said migrants and refugees in Libya "continue to be routinely subjected to violation and abuses.
A boat carrying around 190 migrants was intercepted by the Mauritanian coast guard on Friday, the UN migration agency said. This comes less than two days after 63 migrants drowned when their vessel sank in the same waters en route from The Gambia. The country's president has vowed to crack down on people traffickers.
The French Ministry of Defense announced in February 2019 that it would deliver six semi-rigid speed boats with gun ports to the Libyan coast guard by Spring 2020. On December 2, the government announced they would be halting this delivery after several NGOs filed a lawsuit against the action.
In the third of FRANCE 24’s special reports from Libya, Catherine Norris Trent, Julie Dungelhoeff and Abdallah Malkawi expose the horrors suffered by migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities in the Mediterranean Sea and dispatched back to overcrowded Libyan detention centres.
The Libyan coast guard has reportedly taken 30 migrants off the supply ship "OOC Panther" that rescued them on Saturday in the Central Mediterranean. According to charity search and rescue groups, armed Libyan guards had previously boarded the ship in an attempt to force the migrants to return to Libya.
Italy's national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho has said that African criminal organizations are dangerous and are controling migration from Libya to Europe. He claimed that while the Nigerian mafia is currently the strongest, various organizations work together in a sort of consortium.
Libya's coast guard has reportedly intercepted more than 430 Europe-bound migrants in the past week. The UN has meanwhile voiced alarm over the escalating situation in the country and how it affects migrants and refugees.
Italy shares responsibility for the violations of the rights of migrants in Libya, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) claim. This month the two organizations submitted a joint third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving Libya’s abuses against migrants.
During a meeting in Rome, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte discussed the role of Libya’s controversial coast guard and the distribution of migrants across the European Union. Both called for increased cooperation among EU member states.
Malta has signed a ‘secret deal’ with Libyan authorities to intercept migrants before they reach Maltese waters and take them back to Libya, the ‘The Times of Malta’ has reported. The Maltese government denies the charge.