The JL Project is an active project against refoulement in Libya. It finds victims of illegal refoulement and puts them in touch with lawyers to help them sue for what they have suffered.
Seizing people in international waters and returning them to Libyan detention centres is illegal under Italian and European law. The Italian government knows this, yet it continues to direct and coordinate the arrests at sea, to train and arm the so-called Libyan coastguard, to systematically violate its own laws and to run a gigantic deportation system based on racial profiling.
Perhaps Italy believes that a refugee deprived of his freedom and left to die on the floor of a Libyan camp cannot hire a lawyer and sue. He is wrong. The JL project is already underway and the first cases have already reached the courts.
The project is continuing, reaching more and more rejected people, pursuing more and more cases. Do you want to know how many? The JL project has recorded 750 collective refusals in the last five years, resulting in the deportation of more than 88,000 people to Libyan camps. A very high percentage of these collective returns were coordinated by Italy. The JL Project is currently conducting forensic research to investigate thousands of appeals.
A BIT OF HISTORY
The JL Project was born in 2019 with a very specific aim: to stop refoulement in Libya. From the outset, it has adopted one of the most practical approaches there is: suing the refouler and providing legal assistance to the rejected.
It all started with the Asso Ventinove case, a secret collective refoulement led by the Italian Navy and carried out by an Italian-flagged cargo ship. After discovering the case, the JL project carried out all the forensic investigations and found 85 victims. It contacted lawyers from the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI), who took the case to court (the verdict is forthcoming) and managed to get one of the victims, Sudanese refugee 'Malik', whom the JLP had found in the Ain Zara camp, evacuated from Libya. Thanks to the new lawyers, Malik was picked up by the UNHCR and put on a flight to Rome. Today, the lawyers are taking action to get the other victims of this case out of Libyan hell.
In the Asso Ventinove case, JLProject helped to stop the repatriation of Italian cargo ships. The ship owners now fear that they will have to pay millions of euros in compensation to the people illegally deported to Libya. A resounding victory!
THE JLPROJECT TODAY
In February 2023 the JLproject was taken over by Mediterranea Saving Humans and has grown enormously. Now the JLP is investigating and finding victims of ALL rejections in Libya, especially those directed and/or coordinated by Europe. Many (almost all) sea interceptions have been ordered by the MRCC in Rome and/or carried out using Frontex spy planes and drones - and are therefore illegal. The Italian government could be ordered to compensate thousands of victims in civil court.
The JL project has already mapped deportations in Libya over the last five years: 750 cases involving over 88,000 people. Each refoulement has photos and videos, which are useful for identifying the victims and creating dossiers for lawyers. We call it the 'Voldemort database', after the nickname we gave to the fugitive social media manager of the so-called Libyan coastguard.
You have to think of the JL project as a huge three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle: each piece is a denial that needs to be linked to its victims. Puzzles can be very big, but it is possible to complete them, it takes a method and a lot of work. We have the method and it seems to be working. In the last two weeks we have completed and handed over to the lawyer up to 5 cases of refusals coordinated by European states (and therefore illegal), all with identified victims.
The migrants victims of refoulement in Libya have joined the JL project. Refugee networks around the world are supporting and helping us. This has allowed us to create a database of those who have been rejected.
"Kissa", a 20-year-old Eritrean woman we found on the floor of the women's cell in the Triq al Sikka camp, exclaimed in disbelief: "You were looking for me? It seemed strange to her that someone would look for her in the hellish darkness where the Italian government had deported her, and that someone would care.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
In the JL project there are volunteer activists who declare on the first day: 'I don't know how to do anything', on the second day they learn, on the third day they do it and on the fourth day they teach others.
If you too can't do anything, you are perfect and can become one of us.
To join, contact us at [email protected]
