The regional administrative tribunal of Lazio (TAR) has dismissed legal challenges filed by three NGOs -- Differenza Donna Onlus, Associazione Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione (ASGI) and Spazi Circolari -- against a government decree authorizing migration-related funding.

The organizations had appealed against a decision in May 2019 by Luigi Maria Vignali, Director General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies at the Foreign Ministry, to allocate 2 million euros from the so-called "Africa Fund" to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The funding supported a project titled "Comprehensive and Multi-sectoral Action Plan in Response to the Migration Crisis in Libya".

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Two appeals rejected

Lazio's TAR issued two identical sentences, rejecting the appeals on merits. In their appeal, the NGOs claimed that funding had been provided without an adequate investigation, claiming that "the situation of migrants in Libya who were set to be repatriated as part of the project was such that their voluntary return home was questionable."

Moreover, the organizations claimed that "the circumstances under which IOM operates in Libya -- a country at war in which no form of protection is guaranteed to migrants who are subjected to a structural and general violation of human rights by authorities -- make it difficult for the organization to adequately evaluate the risks run by migrants when they return to their country of origin."

The three organizations also recalled in their appeals that "the international media had documented cases in which refugees were forcibly repatriated and, following their return home, were exposed to persecution and to well-founded risks of grave violations of their fundamental rights."

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TAR's motivations

In the sentences, TAR declared the appeals to be inadmissible because they had not been notified to IOM.

The administrative judges also ruled on the merits that the cases were unfounded. They stated that it was not true that the "Ministry had financed the measure without requesting any guarantee on the respect of fundamental human rights."

The court further described as “manifestly biased” the claim that the overall conditions of the beneficiaries -- in general migrants who were present in Libya and, in particular, a group of "Nigerian women who were set to be repatriated", -- was such as to "strongly question" that each one had genuinely consented to be returned home

The judges also dismissed the argument that the operating environment in Libya made it impossible for IOM to adequately assess individual risks associated with repatriation.

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