EU slammed for Libya migration policy: ‘Migrants returned to torture centres’

The EU is “justifying the unjustifiable” when it supports the Libyan Coast Guard’s efforts to return rescued migrants back to Libya, humanitarian agencies said.

The European Commission was harshly criticized for its Libya policy during a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).

The committee was addressed by Francisco Gaztelu, head of the migration unit of the neighborhood policy and enlargement directorate general.

Inma Vasquez from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) shared her “profound frustration” that her organization has to repeat the same message that Libya is not a safe place to return migrants to.

She said migrants in Libya are vulnerable and end up being victims of violence and torture.

“Year after year the EU is justifying the unjustifiable,” she said, adding that despite the EU claiming that its policies are not harmful, EU-funded reports have produced evidence of harm towards migrants.

Ian Urbina, an American investigative reporter, said there was “something inherently disingenuous with talking about this entire situation as a humanitarian effort and the funding of the Libyan coast guard as doing humanitarian work”.

He called the funding by the EU of Libya’s coast guard “a crime”. “In essence, merely saving migrants from drowning off the coast of Libya hardly constitutes humanitarian action when some, if not most of the detention centres they would be returned to are more like torture centres rife with rape, violence, torture, extortion and squalid conditions,” Urbina said.

The commission representative said the EU mobilized €165 million for different projects and contributed to safe passage and voluntary returns of over 60,000 migrants and evacuation of more than 7,500 asylum seekers.

Gaztelu also explained that the EU is engaged in strengthening border management to the tune of €20 million by supplying training and vessels to the Libyan Coast Guard to help with search and rescue operations.

But the MSF’s Vasquez insisted Libya is not a safe place for migrants. She said of the 60,000 that had fled in 2021 around half had managed to reach Italy and Malta with the other 30,000 being returned to Libya.

Karmen Sahkr of UNHCR was equally frustrated and concerned explaining how interceptions carried out by a new organization, separate from the Libyan defense or interior ministry known as the Stabilization Support Apparatus (SSA) west of Tripoli do not allow UNHCR and others to access the disembarkation points or the detention centres that migrants are taken to.

S&D MEP Pietro Bartolo called the EU response to migration issues “schizophrenic”. 

“The EU showed solidarity to those fleeing Ukraine but seems deaf and blind when it comes to the migration emergency in the Mediterranean,” he said. “How can we fund the Libyan Coast Guard when capturing the migrants only means taking them back to their torturers?”