Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Border Forensics have estimated, in a multimedia dossier published on Monday 12 December, that the use of aerial surveillance by the European Union (EU) border agency, Frontex, to allow Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrant boats, makes this agency complicit in the abuses suffered by migrants.
Indeed, migrants and asylum seekers face systematic and widespread abuse when forcibly returned to Libya, they argue.
While Frontex maintains that aerial surveillance saves lives in the Mediterranean, Human Rights Watch and Border Forensics say they have collected evidence showing that it is at the service of the interception of boats by the Libyan forces, rather than the rescue by civilian relief organizations or merchant ships also present in the area.
“By alerting the Libyan authorities to boats carrying migrants, knowing that these migrants will be returned to atrocious treatment, and despite other options, Frontex is complicit in these abuses”, says Judith Sunderland, deputy director of the division. Europe and Central Asia at HRW.
And to continue, “Frontex’s rhetoric about saving lives will remain tragically meaningless until this agency uses the technology and information at its disposal to ensure that people are rescued quickly and can disembark safe ports”.
The two organizations argue that analysis of available data supports the conclusion that the EU border agency’s approach is designed not to rescue people in distress but to prevent them from reaching EU territory. EU.
According to them, the statistics indicate that the use of air assets by Frontex as part of its current strategy has not had a significant impact on the mortality rate. However, there is a reasonable and statistically significant correlation between flights chartered by Frontex and the number of interceptions made by the Libyan Coast Guard. On days when air assets fly more hours over their area of operation, the Libyan Coast Guard tends to intercept more craft.
For the two NGOs, as long as Frontex operations are designed to allow interceptions by Libyan forces, the border agency and the EU should be held accountable for their role in the abuses suffered by those returned to Libya.
Frontex should put in place effective measures to fulfill its obligation to assess whether its activities, including aerial surveillance, violate fundamental rights. This should include more transparency and accountability in its operations, they say.
HRW and Border Forensics advocate that intercepted migrants should not be sent back to places where they would be exposed to risks of abuse, a lack of access to international protections, as well as inhuman and degrading conditions of detention.
By OMA Newsletter N° 972 of 12/12/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
