It should come as no surprise that the European Commission has requested a clarification from both Malta and Italy over the forced deportation of over 75 asylum seekers to Libya on Sunday.
If anything, the only surprise is that Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot took so long to finally take action over what can only be described as systematic and flagrant disregard for human rights and the rule of international law.
For make no mistake: the forced repatriation of asylum seekers without evaluating their eligibility to asylum – or for that matter, the deportation of persons to countries where their rights cannot possibly be guaranteed – is by definition a crime against humanity.
Curiously, however, the same government of Malta which sets such store by “Christian values”, seems to have deliberately chosen to disregard this simple fact. In its ongoing stand-off with Italy, Malta appears to be quite content to “escort” asylum seekers to Sicily or Lampedusa, knowing full well that – thanks to a bilateral agreement with Gaddafi to the tune of €1 billion in investment over five years – the Italians can simply load these persons onto a Guardia Costiera vessel, and nonchalantly ferry them back to Tripoli as though the exercise were perfectly legal.
But it is not legal: far from it. For one thing, the asylum seekers on this occasion were mostly from Somalia – a war-torn and famine-stricken country in the Horn of Africa, whose citizens are by and large considered to qualify almost automatically for asylum under the terms of the Refugee Convention.
Other immigrants deported last Sunday are believed to be Eritreans, and the situation for these is entirely analogous. And yet, all were deported indiscriminately, without being offered the chance to apply for protection, in flagrant breach of the Charter of Human Rights.
Even if the migrants hailed from countries that do not qualify automatically for protection, their deportation would still have been illegal on the grounds that it violates the principle of “non-refoulement”: a proviso whereby the basic rights of deportees must be guaranteed by the receiving country before any deportation can take place.
It is difficult to understand how Italy can have obtained such guarantees, when the destination country is not party to the United Nations Refugee Convention, and has no recognised asylum system of its own.
Furthermore, Libya has a dismal record of abuse and mistreatment of migrants caught trying to flee the country by boat – as attested by video footage aired recently on La Repubblica, in which a Libyan security official was seen firing a machine gun into the hull of a dinghy, when there were women and children on board.
Even without this evidence, Libya cannot seriously be regarded as a partner in any scheme that claims to uphold human rights. Amnesty International accuses the country of failing to address a long-standing pattern of impunity for perpetrators of gross human rights violations. For instance, no public information has been made available about the investigation into events in 1996 at Tripoli’s Abu Salim Prison, in which hundreds of prisoners were allegedly killed.
Nor have the authorities taken steps to address the legacy of gross human rights violations committed in earlier years, notably the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including the enforced disappearance of hundreds of critics and opponents of Gaddafi’s government: many of whom are feared to have died or been killed in custody.
More specific to the case at hand, there have been numerous and persistent reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detained migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers... not to mention also the issue of “double” refoulement, whereby Libya deports incoming asylum seekers back to their country of origin, despite the fact that in many cases, the outcome will be imprisonment, torture and death.
On 15 January 2008, the Libyan authorities announced their intention to deport all “illegal migrants”, and subsequently carried out mass expulsions of Ghanaians, Malians, Nigerians and nationals of other countries. At least 700 Eritrean men, women and children were detained and were at risk of forcible return despite fears that they would be subjected to serious human rights abuses in their home country.
Under such circumstances, deporting asylum seekers to Libya is grossly irresponsible from a humanitarian point of view, regardless of the legal implications. From this perspective, Malta’s acquiescence to an ongoing crime against humanity can only severely undermine the present government’s claims to hold the high moral ground, and expose us all to international opprobrium.
It is to say the least disappointing, therefore, that the government of Malta should have played along with Italy in violating such basic human rights as the right to protection from torture and degrading treatment. Evidently, our exasperation with the immigration phenomenon – coupled with our inherent territoriality regarding the Search and Rescue Zone, that Italy would have us relinquish – has not only blinded us to our international obligations, but also to basic human decency.
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