Research findings In recent years, Libya has increasingly come to serve as a key transit country, particularly for North and sub-Saharan Africans heading for Europe. In Libya, refugees and asylum-seekers are not afforded adequate protection due to unclear policies regulating their stay in the country and to a lack of recognition of the specific legal status of refugees. The experiences of refugees and migrants alike are characterized by a lack of state protection regardless of their legal status in the country. They risk detention and, once detained, ill-treatment. Sub-Saharan Africans face the additional difficulty of racism from state officials as well as from Libyan society at large. The route through Libya to Italy is characterized by mixed migratory flows, whereby refugees and migrants use the same routes and methods to arrive at their intended destination. Both refugees and migrants find themselves in a highly vulnerable situation, at the mercy of smugglers who facilitate their transport through the desert to Libya, within Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea. Their irregular situation exposes them to great risks as they are forced to travel along difficult routes using dangerous means of transport. In many cases, these journeys end in disaster, with the deaths of family members, friends and fellow travelers. Once in the EU, refugees and asylum-seekers are still not ensured adequate levels of protection and risk indirect refoulement, whereby Italy deports people to Libya, who are then returned from Libya to their country of origin in what amounts to a refoulement. An analysis of the existing cooperation between the EU and Libya and of the EU’s vision of dealing with Libya’s increasing use as a stepping stone to Europe raise the fear that this cooperation is guided primarily by a desire to prevent the flow of people into the EU, regardless of their protection needs. EU-Libya cooperation on combating irregular migration is still in its early stages but evidence so far suggests that a security approach of border control and surveillance is being adopted, while only - 6 - superficial attention is being paid to ensuring human rights protection to refugees and migrants alike. The detailed testimonies contained in this study inform the ongoing negotiations and developments in defining the nature and extent of cooperation between the EU and Libya on irregular migration, with the desired outcome of human rights principles guiding future cooperation.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:10:24 +0000
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