By Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews
ABIDJAN, 22 September 2009:Human Rights Watch has alerted the EU to help prevent Italy from forcing African migrants boats back to Libya, where would-be asylum seekers are consigned to inhumane camps. “Italy flouts its legal obligations by summarily returning boat migrants to Libya,” said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at HRW.
Under a deal with Tripoli, Italy has been intercepting migrant boats in international waters since May and returning them, without screening for asylum applications, to Libya, which has not signed international treaties on refugees.
In a 92-page report titled “The EU should demand that Italy comply with its obligations by halting these returns to Libya” written by Frelick, the HRW said migrants testified to brutal beatings and overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in Libyan camps. One migrant said a companion was shot dead by Libyans when their boat was intercepted leaving the North African coast.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres deplored the situation at a meeting of EU ministers on Monday in Brussels, Belgium.
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