NGOs are sounding the alarm. Several humanitarian organizations, including Save the Children and Amnesty International, urged Italy on Wednesday to repeal a controversial agreement signed with Libya to prevent migrant boat crossings to Europe.
Under the 2017 agreement signed with the support of the European Union, Italy contributes to the financing, training and equipment of the Libyan Coast Guard, which then intercepts migrants in the Mediterranean and returns them from force towards Libya.
Libya described as a ‘Wild West’ for migrants
“Europe, defender of human rights, must under no circumstances enter into an agreement with a country […] in which migrants are tortured, victims of slavery or sexual abuse”said Claudia Lodesani, head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Italy, at a press conference in Rome.
Activists say nearly 100,000 people have been intercepted in this way in five years. Many would have ended up in Libyan detention centers, compared by Pope Francis to concentration camps. Critics deplore a lack of accountability, without transparency on the beneficiaries of European funds, while NGOs denounce a situation of “Wild West” with armed militias posing as the Libyan coastguards.
Italy intends to toughen its line
The appeal by 40 organisations, including MSF, calls for urgent action by Italy’s new far-right government, which was sworn in over the weekend. If Rome does not terminate the agreement by November 2, it will be automatically renewed for three years. In her inaugural speech to parliament, new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledged on Tuesday to take an even tougher line on illegal immigration by boat.
Italy has long been on the front line of migration, welcoming tens of thousands of people to its territory each year who attempt the deadliest crossing in the world. In response, the country had concluded numerous agreements in the 2000s with the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi on the reduction of migratory flows.
But this partnership was suspended following the fall of the Libyan government and the conviction of Italy by the European Court of Human Rights in 2012 for having intercepted and forcibly returned people to Libya. The wars in Syria, Iraq and Libya triggered a wave of refugees in 2015, with more than 150,000 people crossing the sea by boat to Italy, followed by more than 180,000 in 2016. Thousands more , including women and children, died trying to cross the Mediterranean.