Libya: Renewal of migration deal confirms Italy’s complicity in torture of migrants and refugees
Amnesty International UKAug 13, 2021
The Memorandum of Understanding on Migration between Italy and Libya — originally signed in 2017 to give Libya financial and technical support to "combat illegal immigration" — was automatically renewed for a second time on Thursday, sparking criticisms from humanitarian organizations.
In the lead-up to the renewal, Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday accused Italy and the EU of being complicit in serious human rights violations, citing a June 2022 UN report that claims that migrants sent back to Libya faced "inhumane acts," such as murder, torture, and enslavement.
Thanks to the anti-immigrant beliefs of Italian leadership, tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been intercepted at sea and forced back to Libya, where they face unimaginable atrocities. If Italy wants to work with Libya, it should amend the agreement to include releasing migrants from detention centers and ensuring they can safely arrive in Europe.
Though some in the EU leadership don't acknowledge it, there are dozens of individual countries within the bloc, each of which has its own right to border protection. If Italy wants to enact stricter illegal immigration laws, it should be allowed to allocate more resources toward that goal. And if other countries wish to open their doors, they should be given the resources to do so. Europe is facing an unprecedented immigration crisis — as not all are refugees — and it calls for real solutions, not empty virtue signaling.
While all eyes are now on Italy, the West, with its neocolonial policies and imperial logic, is itself responsible for the ongoing migration and refugee crisis and the rise of populist and right-wing governments in Europe, such as that of Giorgia Meloni in Italy. It must not be ignored that, ultimately, it was NATO's "humanitarian intervention" that destroyed Libya and opened Pandora's box.