EU States Should Do More To Prevent Libyan Migrants' Deaths At Sea - UN Refugee Agency

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2019) The European Union (EU) states should undertake more significant efforts to prevent the loss of lives among Libyan migrants on the Mediterranean Sea, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director-General Antonio Vitorino said in a joint statement.

"The status quo, where search and rescue operations are often left to NGO [non-governmental organization] or commercial vessels, cannot continue," the statement said on Monday. "An EU State search and rescue operation, similar to programs we have seen in recent years, is needed."

The statement said that the criminalization of NGO vessels that save migrants' lives at sea should be ended and commercial ships should not be requested to transfer rescued people to the Libyan Coast Guard or disembark them in Libya due to the deteriorating security situation in the country.

In the statement, Grandi and Vitorino, said that they welcomed the agreement reached at a meeting among European ministers earlier on Monday to halt the arbitrary detention of refugees and migrants in Libya and called for the establishment of centers that would provide people with shelter, protection, humanitarian aid and adequate freedom of movement.

"There needs to be a process of orderly release of people in detention centers either to urban areas, or to open centers that allow reasonable freedom of movement, shelter, assistance and protection from harm, plus independent monitoring and regular unhindered access for humanitarian agencies," the statement said.

According to the latest IOM's data, 34,226 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe by the Mediterranean Sea. Some 683 people died on the route since the beginning of 2019.

Libya has turned into an unstable state torn between militias and central government since the Western-backed toppling of Muammar Gaddafi back in 2011.

The tensions flared up in April when the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, launched an offensive to retake the Libyan capital of Tripoli from forces loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord. In one of the offenses, an LNA airstrike on a migrant detention center near Tripoli left dozens dead and over a hundred injured.