Human Rights Watch blames the European Union for the abuse of migrants in the North African country because of its aerial surveillance in the Mediterranean and cooperation with Libya.
The human rights organization published a report that is intended to prove that the EU border protection agency Frontex uses planes and drones to locate refugee boats in the central Mediterranean and communicates their coordinates to the Libyan armed forces.
Libya’s coast guard then often intercepts the migrants and brings them back to the country, where they often experience torture and ill-treatment.
“Frontex is complicit in the abuse,” said Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch director for Europe and Central Asia, according to the release. Frontex’s claim to save lives is “tragically meaningless”.
For its analysis, the human rights organization, together with Border Forensics – an NGO that documents acts of violence against migrants at borders – evaluated official flight data and on-site observations by the German sea rescue team from Sea-Watch.
“Blame the EU for its role in abuse”
In the report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) states that the data on refugee boats obtained by the planes and drones is shared only with the Libyans and not with other vessels nearby, such as civilian rescue ships or merchant ships that might be able to help. The Coast Guard is asked to intercept the boats. According to HRW, the evaluated data show that on those days when Frontex had been conducting intensive airspace surveillance, Libyan naval ships intercepted more migrant boats than usual.
Human rights organizations have long criticized Frontex and the European Union’s cooperation with Libya. They claim that Brussels’ border policy over the past few years has been fighting migrants and refugees rather than helping them.
“As long as Frontex operations are designed to help Libyan forces intercept, the Border Agency and the EU should be held accountable for their role in the abuse people suffer upon their return to Libya,” HRW concluded. Frontex, based in Warsaw, was also asked to work more transparently.
