The European Union on Tuesday defended its record of helping migrants in Libya, after UN-backed investigators accused the 27-nation bloc of encouraging human rights abuses there. North African.
Presenting the report of a UN fact-finding mission to Libya on Monday, Investigator Chaloka Beyani said EU assistance to the Libyan authorities, the migration department and the coast guard “helped and encouraged the commission of these crimes”, including crimes against humanity.
The report states that the migrants, some of whom could have benefited from asylum, “were apprehended, detained and disembarked in Libya with the sole aim of preventing their entry into Europe, as a corollary of the European policy on immigration and the economic agenda of migration in Libya, through their subsequent detention and exploitation”.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said on March 28 that it took these allegations “very seriously”, while stressing that its work in Libya was essential and often carried out in coordination with United Nations agencies such as as the IOM and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Our common goal is to help improve the situation of people stranded in Libya,” said Commission spokesman Peter Stano. Libya is an important jumping-off point for people from North Africa and beyond who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life in Europe.
According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 529 migrants died and 848 others went missing off the coast of Libya last year. More than 24,680 people were intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard as they tried to leave the country by sea, before being brought back to dry land.
