Germany said Wednesday that its military no longer will provide training to Libya’s coast guard because of concerns about their treatment of migrants.
The announcement came as the German government agreed to extend for a year its participation in the European Union naval mission, known as Operation Irini, which monitors an arms embargo against Libya, AP reported.
“The German government cannot currently justify the training of the Libyan coast guard by German soldiers in view of the repeated unacceptable behavior by individual units of the Libyan coast guard toward refugees and migrants, and also toward non-governmental organizations,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said.
In recent years, there have been regular allegations of Libyan coast guards mistreating migrants who are caught trying to reach Europe by boat.
“We have information that in at least two cases, the coast guard acted in a completely unacceptable and illegal manner,” Sasse said.
“This concerns incidents in July 2021,” she added, without elaborating.