The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that 74 migrants were intercepted off the coast of Libya last week.
“From 11 to 17 February 2024, 74 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya.,” IOM said in a statement.
So far in 2024, 1,078 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya, including 952 men, 93 women and 33 children, according to IOM
Earlier this week, an Italian top court has ruled that handing over refugees and migrants rescued in the Central Mediterranean to the Libyan coast guard is a crime because the north African country is not a safe port.
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, according to multiple reports by international non-governmental organizations.
A total of 17,190 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya in 2023. Meanwhile, 962 died, and 1,536 went missing on the Central Mediterranean route off the Libyan coast.
In 2022, 24,684 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya, while 529 died and 848 went missing.