It is a crime to hand over refugees
and migrants rescued in the Central Mediterranean to the Libyan
coast guard because the north African country is not a safe
port, according to a ruling by the Court of Cassation, Italy's
top court, reported by La Repubblica on Saturday.
The decision makes final the conviction of the captain of the
Italian private vessel Asso 28, which on 30 July 2018 rescued
101 people in the central Mediterranean and then handed them
over to the Libyan coastguard to be returned to Libya.
The supreme court judges ruled that facilitating the
interception of migrants and refugees by the Libyan coastguard
falls under the crime of "abandonment in a state of danger of
minors or incapacitated people and arbitrary disembarkation and
abandonment of people", effectively establishing that the 2018
episode amounted to collective refoulement to a country not
deemed safe in violation of the European Convention on Human
Rights.
Migrants and refugees returned to Libya after being intercepted
at sea are routinely detained and subjected to torture,
maltreatment and abuse.
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