Libya’s former Representative to the United Nations (UN), Ibrahim al-Dabbashi, denounced what he called Italy’s attempts at settling immigrants in Libya.
In a Facebook post, Al-Dabbashi claimed that an Italian NGO is behind the project of settlement. He claims that it is an executive arm of the project funded by the Italian Immigration Fund through the Department of Italians Abroad and Immigration Policies of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He stressed that this project is an Italian governmental project, and that the organisation has an executive role only. He added that this framework cannot deviate from the responsibility of the Italian government as well as the responsibility of the Libyan government.
Al-Dabbashi added that the information published on the organisation’s website says that the agricultural project targets the regions of Sebha, Murzuq and Ghat, and it will be supervised by a re-established centre called the Peace Centre in Sebha.
The two-year project will cost around 5 million euros. According to Al-Dabbashi its “hidden” main goal is to integrate immigrants into the indigenous people in Libya.
Notably, the German NGO, Sea-Watch criticised the Italian Coast Guard for returning 30 migrants to Libya, after they were rescued by the ship Sea-Watch 3 in late April, according to the Italian Infomigrants website.
Sea-Watch 3 rescued the migrants in the Mediterranean, and informed the Sea-Watch plane that the Italian Coast Guard had ordered them to return the migrants to Libya. This was based on instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome.
The German NGO confirmed on Thursday that the migrants were later transported to Libya, where the Captain of the Sea-Watch 3 gave orders to return the migrants.
In 2018, a similar event took place, when the Captain of the ship Asso 28 was sentenced to one year in prison by an Italian court for handing over 108 migrants to Libya, after rescuing them.