Libyan Coast Guard - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Italy impounds charity ship involved in at sea dispute with Libya

A German charity vessel was impounded by Italian authorities after it ran into a dispute with the Libyan coast guard over the rescue of as many as 100 migrants in international waters. Italy often temporarily blocks the operations of charity-operated rescue vessels based on a migration decree introduced last year by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist government. The Humanity 1, operated by the SOS Humanity organisation, was blocked for 20 days in the southern port of Crotone, where it had docked on Monday bringing ashore 77 migrants it had picked up during the weekend. A spokesperson for SOS Humanity said the charity…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya fails to stop migrant detention abuses, as EU-backed returns soar

HUMAN RIGHTS

SARA CRETA ZINTAN, LibyaThe EU-backed Libyan Coast Guard has intercepted more than 13,000 asylum seekers and migrants at sea this year, preventing them from reaching Europe – already a greater number than in all of 2020. Those intercepted are returned to Libya and sent to detention centres where a well-documented cycle of extortion, torture, gender-based violence, and trafficking has been taking place for years. At the same time, the EU is facing intensifying scrutiny over its hand in the system due to its support for the Libyan Coast Guard – including the use of its aerial surveillance assets to coordinate interceptions and returns to…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

THE LONG READ: What happens to migrants forcibly returned to Libya?

HUMAN RIGHTS

MAT NASHED THE killing last week of three young men after they were intercepted at sea by the EU-funded Libyan Coast Guard has thrown the spotlight on the fate of tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers returned to Libya to face detention, abuse and torture by traffickers, or worse. The three Sudanese nationals aged between 15 and 18 were shot dead on 28 July, reportedly by members of a militia linked to the Coast Guard as they tried to avoid being detained. They are among more than 6,200 men, women, and children intercepted on the central Mediterranean and returned to Libya this year. Since…