A report by the independent humanitarian organization Refugees International has accused the EU of disregarding human rights and international law in the attempt to slow refugee boat crossings the Mediterranean Sea.
"The fate of people who are seeking international protection is effectively absent from the plans outlined by EU leaders to tackle the Central Mediterranean route", claims the report titled "Hell on Earth". The dossier illustrates abuses against refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe from Libya and asserts that "as the violence and chaos in Libya continue, the EU must ensure that its actions do not result in refugees and migrants being returned to torture or other forms of ill-treatment in Libya".
"The EU must make rescue at sea a priority. The EU should also provide solutions for people in need of international protection, including safe and legal paths to protection in Europe while pushing Libya to fully ensure all human rights protections for refugees and migrants in that country", underlines the report in its introduction. The NGO Refugees International advocates for better support for displaced people and does not accept any United Nations or government funding.
Rule of law absent in Libya
Libya is a country that lacks an asylum system and where the rule of law is absent, the report states, calling on EU countries to accept people on their territory through orderly, legal processes that are viable alternatives to ruthless criminal networks. Furthermore "the EU and its member states should also ensure that their funding and actions in Libya do not result in or contribute to human rights abuses against refugees and migrants."
Climate of violence, migrants bought and sold
Refugees International spoke with a number of refugees and migrants in March 2017 who had recently arrived in Italy from Libya. These individuals described a climate of "insecurity, violence, and impunity". Many said they had been "abused and held by smugglers for months", the report continues. Others, who had tried to work in Libya, said that as Sub-Saharan Africans, they risked being kidnapped and held for ransom or sold by merely walking in the street.
Refugees International also received testimonies of migrants and refugees being bought and sold while in Libya. These testimonies were consistent with reports from IOM in April 2017, whose staff interviewed Sub-Saharan migrants who reported being sold as slaves in the country. One young man from Guinea told Refugees International he had been sold twice while in Libya. "I was sold to an Arab man who forced me to work and told me to call my family so they would send money. He sold me to another Arab man who forced me to work for him too," he told the NGO. Another man, also from Guinea, explained that in Libya, women are more expensive to buy than men.