To mark World Refugee Day, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Libya Crimes Watch (LCW) publish a report calling on the Libyan authorities to stop committing, prevent, investigate and punish gross human rights violations and abuses against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and to adopt and implement a legal framework guaranteeing and protecting their human rights.
.هذا البيان الصحفي متوفر باللغة العربية أيضاً
The ICJ and LCW also call on the European Union (EU) and its Member States to rescind their existing cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding on “irregular migration” with Libya, and to suspend funding and other support to Libyan authorities implicated in serious human rights violations.
“The EU and its Member States must act urgently and stop aiding and abetting the egregious crimes committed against migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Libya,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. “The Libyan authorities and militias responsible for these crimes must be held to account, not empowered through EU funds and complicity.”
Notably, in addition to deliberately obstructing humanitarian search and rescue (SAR) operations, EU Member States have been cooperating with the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) on so-called SAR operations, despite longstanding and well-documented evidence that persons intercepted by the LCG are systematically returned to Libya, where they face serious violations and abuses and remain at risk of onward refoulement.
“Libya cannot be considered a place of safety for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. People intercepted at sea and returned to Libya face a well-documented risk of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, exploitation and other serious human rights violations. Despite years of documented evidence, European governments continue to cooperate with Libyan actors implicated in these abuses in the name of migration control. Policies aimed at preventing arrivals cannot come at the expense of human rights, human dignity and international law,” said Ali Omar, LCW Director.
The report is based on LCW’s documentation of human rights violations against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Libya, and:
(i) analyses Libya’s extremely limited domestic legal framework guaranteeing the human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers;
(ii) documents and analyses the human rights violations and abuses committed against migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Libya; and
(iii) outlines the EU and its Member States’ role in fuelling such violations and abuses through their cooperation with and support for Libyan authorities, as well as through their obstruction of humanitarian rescues in the Mediterranean Sea.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations addressed to Libya, the EU and its Member States, outlining the immediate steps they must take to comply with their legal obligations under international human rights law and international refugee law with respect to the human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Download
The report can be downloaded in English and Arabic.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; t: +41 22 979 3800, e: said.benarbia@icj.org
Nour Al Hajj, Regional Communications & Advocacy Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; e: nour.alhajj@icj.org
Ali Omar, Director, LCW; e: ali@lcw.ngo
Nour Khalifa, Communications & Outreach Officer, LCW; e: nour@lcw.ngo