The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) of being «complicit» in systematic and widespread abuses committed in Libya against migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.
«By alerting Libyan authorities about boats carrying migrants, knowing that they will be turned back to (a country that inflicts appalling treatment on them, and despite having other options, Frontex is complicit in the abuse,» said HRW’s associate director for Europe and Central Asia, Judith Sunderland.
The EU border agency’s approach, the NGO stressed, is not designed to rescue people in danger, but to prevent them from reaching European Union territory. These are HRW’s conclusions after an investigation analyzing Frontex flights in the Mediterranean.
«There is a moderate and statistically significant correlation between the flights and the number of interceptions made by the Libyan Coast Guard. On days when they (the aircraft) fly more hours over their area of operation, the Libyan Coast Guard tends to intercept more vessels,» he said.
In this sense, he explained that the «evidence» gathered in his study, carried out together with Border Forensics, concludes that Frontex «is at the service of interceptions by Libyan forces, rather than rescue by the rescue bodies operating in the area».
The NGO has claimed that on July 30, 2021 a drone operated by Frontex «detected at least two boats», but the European border agency decided not to issue any alert, after which the Libyan Border Guard intercepted both vessels.
«The failure to inform rescue organizations about the vessels in distress or to issue emergency alerts to all vessels in the area illustrates Frontex’s deliberately narrow interpretation of the distress situation,» they said.
According to figures provided by the European border agency, between January 2020 and April 2022, they issued a total of 21 alerts, which for HRW is a «tiny fraction» of the ships sighted by their aerial surveillance.
«Frontex says there were 433 detections by aerial surveillance in the central Mediterranean in 2021. That year, Frontex facilitated Libyan Coast Guard operations that resulted in the forced return of approximately 10,000 people: almost a third of the more than 32,000 people who landed in Libya,» they have zanelled.
