The work of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is called into question given the new practices denounced by NGOs such as Open Arms, among others, on the coasts of Libya.
After 20 days of blockade in the port, the Open Arms ship returned to the Mediterranean this Sunday, to confirm what numerous testimonies have been pointing out for almost a month: the collusion of the Libyan coast guard against human trafficking networks.
“We were able to observe three unusual cases where the passivity of the supposed Libyan authorities stands out, despite being well informed of what was happening. Three boats appeared in trouble that had to be rescued. Everyone was getting on, and those who stayed, the last ones on the boat refused to get on, turning around due to the passivity of the authorities present there, the so-called Libyan coast guard,” describes Óscar Camps, founder and director of Open Arms, present during this practice.
Oscar Camps does not hesitate to point out that “these new practices are allowed by Libya and are under the knowledge of the European authorities.”
As THE SPIGEL revealed, Frontex reportedly shared hundreds of emails containing coordinates of migrant boats with the Libyan Coast Guard between 2021 and 2023, despite having seen them shoot at boats and hit migrants during maritime interceptions.
The European authorities ignore the abuses inflicted on tens of thousands of people seeking to enter Europe, and do not hesitate to renew, in 2020, the Italy-Libya agreement to block the entry of thousands of migrants. Italy's complicity, which can be extrapolated to the European Union, occurs while the tightening of the agreement between both countries complicates migration to Europe, retaining migrants in a country ravaged by war.
“In the first three years since the initial agreement was signed, at least 40,000 people, including thousands of minors, have been intercepted at sea, returned to Libya and exposed to unimaginable suffering,” according to Marie Struthers, regional director of Amnesty International.
The so-called “hot returns” constitute a violation of Human Rights. An act against which Felipe González Morales, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, has spoken out, asking “to respect the prohibition of collective expulsion”, to guarantee that no one is returned to a country where they run the risk of being tortured. , killed or suffering irreparable harm.
The inevitable reality is that the displacement of people, in various forms, is a historical constant. Therefore, Óscar Camps asks that “the most sensible thing would be for the nations of origin, transit and destination to collaborate in comprehensive planning, in order not to violate the human rights of these people, as is the case with current immigration policies. ”.
