03 August, 2017
"Rather than sending ships to help save lives and offer protection to desperate refugees and migrants, Italy is planning to deploywarships to push them back to Libya", said Amnesty International's Europe Director John Dalhuisen.
"The Italian navy deployment in Libyan waters could effectively lead to arbitrary detention of people in abusive conditions", media outlets quoted Sunderland as saying.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni says the mission could become a "turning point" in Italy's bid to manage the unrelenting flow of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.
Fayez al-Sarraj, the prime minister of the UN-backed government controlling western Libya, denied having asked Italy to send naval vessels into Libya's territorial waters.
The code, created to address the biggest migrant phenomenon in Europe since World War II, lays down 13 rules Italy insists must be followed to prevent aid groups rescuing migrants from acting as a magnet for human traffickers. Italy has also, with European Union backing, put ties on the ability of NGOs to rescue people at sea, demonstrating just how misguided its whole approach is.
Under global and regional human rights law, no one rescued or intercepted by an European Union-flagged ship or under the custody or control of an EU member state can be sent back to a place or handed over to authorities where they face a real risk of torture or ill-treatment - known as the non-refoulement principle.
But even if the Italian Navy simply provides intelligence to Libyan coast guard forces that leads to the foreseeable apprehension and detention of migrants in abusive conditions, Italy could share responsibility under global law for assisting Libyan authorities in committing internationally wrongful acts.
The impounding of the Iuventa came as Italy began enforcing a controversial code of conduct for charity boats rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.
According to an Italian Navy spokesperson, the two ships - a patrol vessel and a technical and logistical support unit - could be deployed to Libyan waters as early as next week.
Since 2015 as many as a dozen NGO aid ships have been patrolling off Libya to pick up migrants in distress.
However, Libyan eastern parliament rejected the Italian naval mission, calling it a "violation to the national sovereignty".
Smugglers, exploiting the chaos in Libya caused by the 2011 uprising, pack desperate refugees and asylum seekers onto ill-equipped boats, which are usually intercepted by European vessels once they enter worldwide waters. "We have evidence of encounters between traffickers, who escorted illegal immigrants to the Iuventa, and members of the boat's crew".
