The Italian Parliament has approved a naval mission to support Libya's coast guard against human traffickers. The vote was criticized by Amnesty International and other NGOs.
The Lower House and Senate on Wednesday approved resolutions to back the government's naval mission to support the Libyan coast guard. Premier Paolo Gentiloni announced last week that Italy was considering a request from Libya for help in combatting human traffickers after meeting Libyan Premier Fayez al-Sarraj in Rome. Most of the over 95,000 migrants who landed in Italy so far this year started their journey across the Mediterranean from Libya, which has been affected by chaos since a Paris-led campaign contributed to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. It is hoped that the mission with the Libyan coast guard can help stem this flow, which is causing massive strain on the Italian authorities. Gentiloni said Friday that the use of Italian vessels to support Libya would not entail ''an enormous deployment of big fleets and air squadrons''.
The defense ministry on Wednesday said that the Italian ship the Comandante Borsini has ''just entered Libyan territorial waters after receiving the necessary authorizations, heading towards the port of the city of Tripoli''. The ship, which was previously engaged in the Mare Sicuro (safe sea) operation, will conduct ''the necessary reconnaissance activities'' to be able to decide on coordination for subsequent activities a statement said. Amnesty Intl says Italy mission exposes migrants to abuse Amnesty International on Tuesday harshly criticised a vote in the Italian parliament to send Italian warships to patrol Libyan waters.
''Today, the Italian authorities have demonstrated that they consider it more important to keep migrants and refugees away from their coasts rather than protect their lives and their safety,'' said Amnesty International Deputy Europe Director Gauri Van Gulik. ''Facilitating the interception of migrants and refugees and their return to Libya will mean sending them to the country's detention centres, where they will almost certainly be exposed to the risk of undergoing torture, rapes, and even being killed,'' she said. ''Today's vote could make the Italian authorities accomplices in these horrors.''
''Italy, together with other members of the European Union, should dedicate itself to increasing search and rescue operations. Instead, it has chosen to abdicate its responsibilities and to put in danger the same people that it says it wants to save, even providing military cover and support to the Libyan Coast Guard, whose violent and reckless actions have been documented several times, including by Amnesty International,'' she said.
Oxfam Italy Campaign Director Elisa Bacciotti said the Italian Lower House decision on Tuesday to provide Italian Navy technical and logistical support to the Libyan Coast Guard in patrolling its shores ''won't help alleviate the suffering of migrants who cross the country fleeing from war and atrocities''.''On the contrary, by facilitating non-voluntary repatriation in Libya directly through the Libyan Coast Guard, the mission could have the effect of bringing back and blocking a higher number of migrants to a country whose detention centres are comparable to true concentration camps, in which people are systematically exposed to inhumane treatment,'' Bacciotti said.
''This is a reality made up of abuse, torture and illegal detention experienced by the majority of migrants arriving in Libya, at the hands of local militias, traffickers and criminal gangs,'' she said. ''The code of conduct for the NGOs working in the Mediterranean puts the lives of thousands of people at risk and constitutes an unprecedented attack on the principles that inspire the work of humanitarian organisations,'' she said.
The Italian NGO Emergency called the Italian government's decision to deploy military ships in Libya ''an act of war against migrants''. Despite the fact that it isn't currently involved in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, Emergency called the code of conduct imposed by the Italian government on humanitarian organisations working in search and rescue operations ''unacceptable''. ''In particular, the request to permit military personnel, presumably armed, to board ships, is in fact an open violation of the humanitarian principles that form the pillar of the work of NGOs worldwide,'' it said. ''This concession risks creating a dangerous precedent,'' it said.