Migrants accuse Italy of rights abuse
ROME: Seventeen Nigerian survivors of a 2017 migrant boat sinking have filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights accusing Italy of violating their human rights by “subcontracting” their rescue to Libya.
The case, backed by legal and human rights organisations, poses a direct challenge to Italy’s much-touted 2017 deal with Libya that has greatly reduced the number of asylum-seekers reaching Europe.
Those backing the case said yesterday that the policy, which involved using EU funds to train and equip the coast guard to patrol its coasts and bring migrants back, had subjected would-be refugees to slavery, torture and other degrading and inhuman treatment once back in Libya.
They argue that Italy was responsible for the abuses because it maintained “effective control” over the Libyan rescuers via its own coast guard co-ordination centre in Rome and an Italian Navy vessel docked off Tripoli that co-ordinates rescues locally.
And they said Italy was liable for the abuses because the violent conditions of Libyan detention centres where they were held after their return were wellknown and well-documented.
A call and e-mail to the Italian foreign ministry seeking comment weren’t immediately returned.
But Italy has defended its support of the coast guard and held up as a success its agreement with the UN-backed prime minister, Fayez Serraj. Italian officials say it has saved lives and slowed to a trickle the number of migrants who risk their lives paying Libyan-based smugglers to ferry them to Europe aboard flimsy dinghies.
The policy has worked: 6 731 migrants have arrived in Italy so far from Libya in 2018, 84% down from 2017 and 78% down from the year before, interior ministry figures show.
But human rights groups say, under its policy, Italy is shirking international responsibilities to rescue migrants at sea and bring them to safety.
The case concerns the November 6 sinking of a dinghy carrying 130 migrants, mostly Nigerian, off the coast of Libya. The Libyan coast guard arrived at the scene first but the German aid group Sea Watch 3 also responded with dinghies and rescued 59 people. An estimated 20 drowned.
Two of the 17 who filed the case to the Strasbourg court on May 3 were rescued and brought back to Libya, where they reported being tortured and suffering other rights violations, said Loredana Leo of the Italian NPO Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration, who is representing the migrants. They are now back in Nigeria, after having agreed to be repatriated to escape the Libyan detention centres, she said.
Another lawyer, Violeta Moreno-Lax of the Global Legal Action Network, said the case builds on the 2012 decision by the court that found Italy’s earlier “pushback” policy with strongman Muammar Gaddafi, also intended to stem migration by returning migrants to Libya, violated international law.
Moreno-Lax said Italy is committing the same violations “by proxy” with its new Libyan “pullback” policy.
The consortium is asking the court to rule that Italy has violated international law and force it to award the migrants “moral reparations”. Lawyers said it would likely be two to three years before a decision is made.
ITALY IS COMMITTING THE SAME VIOLATIONS ‘BY PROXY’ WITH ITS NEW LIBYAN ‘PULLBACK’ POLICY