Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

EU hands Libya coast guard boats ahead of migration summit

  • The Libyan Coast Guard setting migrant boats on fire (Photo: Nikolaj Nielsen)
Listen to article

The EU commission gave the Libyan Coast Guard the first of five new EU-funded patrol boats to help prevent migrants and asylum seekers from fleeing to Europe.

The handover on Monday (6 February) in Italy by EU commissioner Oliver Varhelyi to Libya's minister of foreign affairs comes just days ahead of an EU summit on migration.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • A Libyan patrol boat which had chased a boat of migrants into Malta's search-and-rescue zone (Photo: Nikolaj Nielsen)

"Today's delivery of the search and rescue vessel for the Libyan Coast Guard is a milestone in our fight against illegal migration," said Varhelyi.

The boats have been billed as a life-saving exercise by the EU, despite knowing many of those returned to Libya face persecution, rape, torture and enslavement.

They were procured under a border management budget from the EU's emergency trust fund for Africa.

It also comes after Italy's rightwing government renewed a deal to provide Libya with more funds and equipment to intercept people fleeing the country by sea.

The European Commission says its Libya policies adheres to the "do no harm principle". But it will not provide evidence, and refuses to name the outside contractor it hired to carry out the assessments.

"We are not giving further details of who they are," said a European Commission spokesperson.

The coast guard is a militia-linked outfit known to use dangerous interception tactics in search and rescue zones under Maltese oversight.

The patrol boats are part of a wider European Union push to offshore policing onto north Africa states and the Western Balkans, a topic set to be discussed later this week at a summit in Brussels of EU heads of state and government.

EU looking to curtail migration

Leaked draft summit conclusions suggest a desire for more control of the EU's external borders, including full support for the EU's border police Frontex.

"On migration, the talks will focus on the external aspects," Laurence Boone, France's minister of state for Europe, told reporters on Monday.

Leaders also plan to discuss how to leverage EU incentives, like visas, to force countries to curtail migration and take back their nationals.

This includes forcing Western Balkan states like Serbia to cancel visa-free travel for some nationals that then go on to seek refuge in the EU. And figures are being cited to drum up the political support.

Last week, EU commission president Von der Leyen said over 900,000 people applied for asylum in 2022.

She also said there had been 330,000 detections of irregular crossings in the EU, a 64-percent increase since 2016. Von der Leyen was citing Frontex numbers.

But that agency's own fine print also notes that "the same person may cross the border several times in different locations at the external border."

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a Brussels-based NGO, also disputes the alarm behind the figures.

"Most people who applied for asylum did not cross the borders 'irregularly' — they arrived on a visa," they said, in a recent blog.

It is therefore likely fewer people arrived in 2021 and 2020 due to Covid-related travel restrictions, leading to a spike last year.

ECRE also pointed out that most arrivals are entitled to protection, noting that many receive a protection status after appeals.

Fences and drones

Meanwhile, the European Commission is promoting more surveillance along the external EU border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

The push comes as some EU states press to have the European Commission finance fences and walls.

"Let's be frank and open. Fences are working and they shouldn't be condemned," said Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, deputy minister of foreign affairs of Greece.

Charity rescue vessels are also being forced by Italy's new rightwing government to disembark people rescued at sea at distant ports.

The move follows an Italian decree condemned by Dunja Mijatovic, Europe's human rights commissioner at the Council of Europe. The decree forces NGO vessels to ignore other distress calls in the area if they already have rescued people onboard.

For its part, the European Commission declined to comment when asked its views on Mijatovic's evaluation.

On board with SOS Méditerranée

Malta refuses to help rescue involving disabled children

The Libyan Coast Guard intercepted a wooden boat of 30 people some 10 nautical miles inside Malta's search and rescue zone. But then suddenly let them go, allowing the Ocean Viking to perform its first rescue since leaving Marseille.

EU Commission wants drones for Bulgaria on Turkey border

The European Commission wants to shore up the land border between Bulgaria and Turkey with drones. "We can strengthen the border with management capabilities," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs.

Libya to get new EU-funded boats despite crimes

The EU Commission is to deliver three new 'P150' patrol boats to the Libyan coast guard, despite a recent UN report citing possible crimes against humanity at Libyan detention centres.

EU responds to Italy drownings with more support for Libya

In a letter to Italy's prime minister, concerning the shipwreck that killed some 70 people, the European Commission suggests shoring up the Libyan coast guard and launching anti-smuggling partnerships with Tunisia and Egypt.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us