Archive
Libya: Evidence crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since 2016, UN report finds
Press release published by the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, along with the Mission's full report and statements from a press conference on 4 October. Read More
EU Military Committee advice on Libya: extend aerial surveillance, increase “attractiveness” of EU support to coast guard
Two documents concerning possible options for ongoing EU engagement with authorities in Libya. Read More
EU: Tracking the Pact: Proposed cooperation with North Africa received with “interest”; external cooperation “state of play”
Two internal EU documents circulated in the Council: one containing the former Portuguese Presidency's assessment of North African states' responses to a proposed "enhanced political dialogue" on justice and home affairs issues; the other, the Commission's overview of "the main external migration dialogues and processes since 2019." Read More
Libyan police lieutenant: ‘Coast guard are smugglers’
"An ex-Libyan lieutenant police officer says the Libyan coast guard actively works with smugglers, posing questions on the EU's continued cooperation with them." Read More
UK continuing operations against “illegal immigration” in Libya
A report by The Libya Observer looks at a meeting between UK and Libyan officials at which issues concerning immigration, terrorism and human trafficking were discussed. The UK's defence secretary reportedly said that the UK is working with Libya on "anti-terrorism and illegal immigration training programs". Read More
EU: Crimes of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex in the Central Mediterranean Sea
A new factsheet by Sea-Watch documents Frontex's "ongoing and unpunished aerial complicity in human rights violations". Read More
Border surveillance, drones and militarisation of the Mediterranean
The growing use of drones and other long-range, increasingly-automated forms of surveillance and data collection are part of the militarisation of Europe’s borders in the Mediterranean, which have led to thousands of unnecessary deaths and push- and pull-backs to Libya, where migrants and refugees face arbitrary detention, violence, mistreatment and torture. This article, by the journalist Antonio Mazzeo, chronicles investments into and tests and deployments of drone technology by EU and national agencies in the Mediterranean. Read More
Libya key to EU plan to build a “big wall” against migration, says new report
Libya lies at the heart of a strategy for which funds from Italy, EU institutions and other member states have been channelled through an opaque financing mechanism with the central aim of reducing migration from Africa to Europe, says a new report by ActionAid. Read More
Libya: Interceptions of people fleeing by sea increase as EU border mission seeks two-year extension
The EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM Libya) wants to continue its support for the Libyan coast guard agencies that intercepted almost 3,000 more people at sea in 2020 than in 2019, according to a document obtained by Statewatch. Read More
Italy: Court of Auditors should investigate use of public funds in Libyan detention centres, say ASGI
The Italian legal organisation ASGI (Associazione Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione) has called on the Italian Court of Auditors to investigate the use of public funds for detention centres in Libyan, noting in a press release that Italian NGOs appear to have carried out "a series of actions pursuing the benefit not of the detainees but of the detention facilities". Read More