Barcelona, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, London, Madrid, Milan, Naples, Rome, Zurich and many other cities will take to the streets to demand that the Italian government put an end to the shameful and illegitimate agreement. Abroad, protests will take place outside Italian embassies and consulates.
The memorandum violates international law and human rights. In 2012, Italy was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for refoulement of people from Libya. In order to circumvent this ruling, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 2017. It has since been widely challenged and denounced by Amnesty International, other human rights NGOs, the UNHCR, the United Nations and the European Union itself.
Refugees in Libya, the self-organised protest movement in Libya, has been fighting against the inhumane conditions created by the MoU in front of the UNHCR headquarters in Tripoli since October 2021, despite the brutal repression they face. To date, more than 300 people arrested during the violent eviction of the garrison in January 2022 are still in detention.
The MoU regulates cooperation between Italy and Libya on security and irregular migration by providing: technical and technological support to the so-called Libyan Coast Guard; the completion of Libya's southern border control system; and the financing of local detention centres. The MoU is mainly funded by the EU and implemented by Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. Part of the funding goes to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which are the humanitarian facade of the agreement, but do not fulfil their duty to protect refugees in Libya.
What is the reality?
- The memorandum establishes a radical externalisation of the borders, installing a regime of death on the Libyan borders and in the concentration camps. The numerous reports highlighting the atrocities committed in Libya, funded by this agreement, are well known. Since 2017, 50,000 people on the move have been turned back and returned to these camps, having been intercepted and captured by the so-called Libyan coastguard. Libya is not a 'safe place' of disembarkation, yet thousands of people are returned to Libyan territory where they go through the hellish cycle of arbitrary detention, trafficking, attempted escape to safety and interception by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard: a cycle of torture, rape, slavery, starvation and death.
- The Italian government is training Libyan security forces in direct collusion with the militias and traffickers with whom it does lucrative business. This collusion has been repeatedly denounced by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and others.
- Libya has never ratified the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and does not even fully recognise the UNHCR. Even people registered by the UNHCR as seeking protection are arbitrarily arrested and detained in camps. The United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have repeatedly condemned the crimes against humanity committed in these camps.
On 2 November 2022, the Memorandum of Understanding will be automatically renewed for a further three years, unless terminated by the Italian or Libyan governments. The continuation of this Memorandum will consolidate the inhuman conditions in Libya for people on the move.
People in Italy, Europe and around the world must stand in solidarity with refugees in Libya and use their power to force Italy and the EU to cancel this inhumane agreement. Members of the Italian parliament must defend the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution and challenge the memorandum.
ITALY MUST STOP THE MEMORANDUM IMMEDIATELY!
We demand an end to all EU funding and cooperation with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard and other Libyan maritime 'rescue' actors in the Mediterranean!
We demand the urgent activation of a European maritime rescue mission in the Mediterranean!
We demand an end to the criminalisation of the rescue of civilians and people on the move!
We demand the evacuation of people on the move to safe EU countries!
We demand the closure of Libyan detention centres!
We demand that the demands set out in the Refugees in Libya Manifesto be heard!
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND THE RIGHT TO STAY MUST BE UNIVERSAL RIGHTS.
