CAIRO: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has lashed out at the Italian government over forcibly returning Libyan migrants to their home nation after being intercepted by Italian security forces off the coast of the European nation. The report, issued on Monday, says Italy continues to fail in properly screening for refugee status and other vulnerabilities and returns them to Libya, “where many are detained in inhuman and degrading conditions and abused.” The 92-page report, “Pushed Back, Pushed Around: Italy’s Forced Return of Boat Migrants and Asylum Seekers, Libya’s Mistreatment of Migrants and Asylum Seekers,” looks closely at the practices of Italy in their treatment of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Libya. It documents through personal experiences of a number of migrants who are currently in Italy and Malta and examines Rome's redirection of boats full of migrants and forcing them back to Libya without undergoing the proper screening procedures established by international law. “The reality is that Italy is sending people back to abuse,†Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report, said in a press statement. “Migrants who had been detained in Libya consistently spoke of brutal treatment and overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.†New York-based HRW said that “Italian patrol boats tow migrant boats from international waters without determining whether some might be refugees, sick or injured, pregnant women, unaccompanied children, or victims of trafficking or other forms of violence against women. The Italians force the boat migrants onto Libyan vessels or take the migrants directly back to Libya, where the authorities immediately detain them. Some of the operations are coordinated by Frontex, the European Union’s external borders migration-control agency.” The rights group and activists in Egypt, also home to hundreds who attempt the dangerous waters to Italy, and Libya agree with HRW's assertion that the policy does not live up to Italy's “legal obligation not to commit refoulement – the forced return of people to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened or where they would face a risk of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment.” An official working in Italy with an international legal organization, told Bikya Masr in a phone interview on Monday evening that the situation needs to be carefully studied and that “the Italian government should look at this as an opportunity to lead Europe in dealing with migrants.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, argued that hundreds of possible refugees are “turned away” and “forgotten, because Europeans really don't seem to care what happens to Muslims and Africans, especially with the immigrant problem already very large.” “Pushed Back, Pushed Around†is based on interviews with 91 migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Italy and Malta, conducted mostly in May 2009, and one telephone interview with a migrant detainee in Libya. Human Rights Watch visited Libya in April and met with government officials, but the Libyan authorities would not permit the organization to interview migrants privately. The authorities also did not allow Human Rights Watch to visit any of the many migrant detention centers in Libya, despite repeated requests. BM
