As Abuse Is Known, Material Assistance Makes Rome Complicit. The Italian government should suspend all support to the Libyan Coast Guard until Libya commits to a clear plan to fully respect migrants’ safety and rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The plan should include closing abusive migrant detention centers and, in particular, a guarantee to protect migrants against arbitrary detention and inhuman and degrading treatment. “Italy can’t paper over its complicity in the suffering of migrants and refugees who fall into the hands of the Libyan Coast Guard,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch. “Humanitarian rhetoric doesn’t justify continued support to the Coast Guard when Italy knows people apprehended at sea will be returned to arbitrary detention and abuse.” On February 9, 2020, the Italian Foreign Ministry announced that it had sent Tripoli its proposal for changes to the 2017 Memorandum of Understanding that provides the framework for cooperation on border control between the two countries. The statement says only that the changes are designed to increase protection for migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Libya, and to require consolidating the activities of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Italian foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, told parliament on January 30 that Italy would advocate closing detention centers and opening facilities under UN auspices, as well as supporting greater voluntary returns from Libya to countries of origin.
via human rights watch: Italy: Halt Abusive Migration Cooperation with Libya