Human rights court slams Italian migration policy Sending migrants back to Libya violated European Convention on Human Rights, court rules.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Italy’s policy of returning asylum-seekers intercepted in international waters to Libya violates several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The court found that Italy’s policy violates the principle of “non-refoulement”, which prohibits returning migrants to countries where they face persecution or inhuman or degrading treatment.

The landmark ruling, issued in Strasbourg today (23 February), affects more than 1,000 migrants who were intercepted by the Italian coastguard and returned to Libya since 2009, when an agreement on the policy was struck between Silvio Berlusconi, then Italy’s prime minister, and Muammar Qaddafi, then Libya’s leader.

Under the policy, migrants - including pregnant women and children - were forced back to Libya, where they faced systematic maltreatment. Most of the migrants were from sub-Saharan Africa, primarily Somalia and Eritrea.

The case had been brought by 11 Somalis and 13 Eritreans, who under the ruling are to receive compensation of €15,000 each. Two of them have since died, in unexplained circumstances.

The migrants were not identified by the Italian coastguard, nor were they informed that they were being taken to Libya rather than Italy. They were given no chance to apply for asylum.

Allan Leas, the acting secretary of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an alliance of groups supporting refugees and asylum-seekers, said: “This ruling confirms that states’ obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights do not stop at their physical borders. States cannot abdicate their principles, values and commitment to the protection of human rights by doing outside their borders what would not be permissible in their territories.”



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