The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced that Libyan patrols have intercepted 601 migrants within a week, and returned them to Libya.
It said on Monday that the migrants, including women and children, were “intercepted and returned to Libya between 25 June and 1 July 2023.”
“So far this year, a total of 8,496 migrants have been intercepted and returned to Libya,” the organisation said, adding that “780 migrants have died and another 944 are missing at sea off the Libyan coast.”
According to the IOM, the first quarter of 2023 was the ‘deadliest’ since 2017, with 441 migrants deaths along the Mediterranean route.
Notably, the EU delivered two more patrol boats to the Libyan Coast Guard in a ceremony in Italy, on Thursday. The step was a part of the European Union’s executive project of Support to integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya.
The project aims to “strengthen the capacity of relevant Libyan authorities in the areas of border and migration management, including border control and surveillance, addressing smuggling and trafficking of human beings, search and rescue at sea and in the desert.”
The EU delivered “two Currubia Class” vessels which were former Italian Finance Guard patrol boats, according to Radio Radicale journalist, Sergio Scandura. It was heavily criticised by a United Nations report released in late March, which documented the collusion of the high-ranking staff of the Libyan Coast Guard with traffickers and smugglers, according to EurActiv news website.
According to the report, the Coast Guard “are reportedly connected to militia groups, in the context of the interception and deprivation of liberty of migrants.”
