Cooperating with the Libyan coast guard to return migrants to North Africa can put their lives and rights at risk, the Council of Europe has warned. 

In a report published on Tuesday, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, raises concerns over the return of migrants to Libya and cooperation with the Libyan coastal authorities.  

Back in 2019, Times of Malta had exposed how Malta had secretly negotiated a deal with Libya that saw the Armed Forces of Malta coordinating with the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrants headed towards the island and returned to the war-torn North African country.

The Council of Europe report says that since then, member states’ support to the Libyan coast guard, which contributes to the return of refugees and migrants to Libya, has been reconsidered in some cases. 

However, this change in policy resulted mainly from legal action brought by NGOs and other stakeholders rather than proactive steps by member states. 

On the Central Mediterranean route specifically, many developments appear to be aimed, implicitly or explicitly, at “clearing the field” for interceptions by the Libyan Coast Guard. 

This, the report says, is leading, according to data collected by the International Organisation for Migration, to more than 20,000 returns to Libya in 2019 and 2020, exposing individuals to serious human rights violations. 

Co-operation activities with third countries, including Libya, have been stepped up despite the undeniable evidence of serious human rights violations, and without applying human rights safeguards or transparency and accountability principles, the commissioner says. 

In this respect, in May 2020, the commissioner called on Malta to refrain from issuing instructions to private vessels to disembark rescued persons in Libya, and not handing over responsibility to the Libyan Coast Guard or related entities when the foreseeable consequence of this would be disembarkation in Libya.

She also urged the government to ensure full accountability for situations in which action by the Maltese authorities has directly or indirectly led to such returns. 

The overall situation facing migrants in the Mediterranean has further deteriorated and gives cause for great alarm, the commissioner says.  

Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean continue to be "worryingly recurrent", with more than 2,600 registered deaths in the two-year period under consideration, the vast majority along the Central Mediterranean route.

These numbers, the report reads, may well under-represent the real tally of deadly incidents, which are increasingly likely to be happening out of sight and to go unrecorded.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to the adoption of more restrictive measures, having a direct impact on refugees' and migrants’ human rights. 

The commissioner also briefly weighed in on a Maltese government policy of housing rescued migrants on vessels at sea during the port closures announced at the onset of the pandemic. 

The commissioner urged national authorities to revise this policy and ensure migrants are not held at sea for unnecessarily long periods. 

The report makes five key recommendations;

● guarantee the presence of adequate and effective state-led search and rescue capacity at sea and provide for a quick and adequate response to distress calls; 

● ensure safe and prompt disembarkation of those rescued, supported by genuine European solidarity; 

● stop hindering civil society organisations’ human rights activities, whether they are involved in search and rescue or human rights monitoring; 

● end pushbacks, co-ordination of pullbacks or other activities leading to the return of refugees and migrants to areas or situations where they are exposed to serious human rights violations; and

● expand safe and legal routes, beginning with those individuals in need of international protection. 

Malta allegedly unresponsive to distress calls

There have been repeated allegations, especially relating to Malta, of being unresponsive to refugees and migrants in distress or NGOs raising alarm, the report says. 

There have also been several reports of coastal states’ authorities responding only very slowly, or simply issuing instructions to commercial vessels in the vicinity of a boat that may be in distress to stand by. 

Failures to respond and delays in attending to distress calls, or to provide information to relevant bodies that could conduct the rescue, have risked jeopardising the right to life of people stranded at sea.

There are also a number of highly concerning reports of situations in which state-led operations have resulted in increased risk to refugees and migrants at sea, rather than protecting them from harm. 

This has included allegations of a migrant boat being towed from the Maltese to the Italian Search and Rescue Region.