An investigator for a United Nation mission, Chaloka Beyani has interpreted the European Union backing Libyan authorities who stop and detain migrants to mean the bloc has “aided and abetted” rights violations against migrants.
Beyani made the position after a UN fact-finding mission presented a report saying crimes against humanity were carried out against migrants in detention centres.
Beyani, who is one of the independent mission’s members, said “although we’re not saying that the EU and its member states have committed these crimes. The point is that the support given has aided and abetted the commission of the crimes.”
“The alarm bell has been rung and sent to the international community,” said Beyani. “Hopefully (it) will act on the findings.”
The mission said both state security forces and armed militia groups have committed crimes. The militia groups acted to repress dissent and carried out murders, rapes, enslavement, judicial killings, and forced disappearances.
“The violations and abuses investigated by the mission were connected primarily to the consolidation of power and wealth by militias and other state-affiliated groups,” the report said.
“Trafficking, enslavement, forced labour, imprisonment, extortion and smuggling of vulnerable migrants generated significant revenue for individuals, groups and state institutions,” it added.
In its defence, the European Union through its lead spokesperson for external affairs, Peter Stano, told a news briefing before the report’s release: “We are providing assistance to help them (Libya) to improve their performance when it comes to search and rescue, be it with vessels, be it with equipment or with training with the focus on human rights.”
There has been little peace in Libya since NATO-backed uprisings ousted autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Political control has been divided between eastern and western factions since 2014, with the last major conflict ending in 2020.
Recall that the EU and member states have supported and trained the Libyan coastguard, which returns migrants stopped at sea to detention centres, and have funded Libyan border management programmes via the Italian government.