The findings raise fresh questions about Brussels’ controversial funding and cooperation on migrant control with the North African country ahead of meetings between EU officials and the rivalrous east- and west-Libyan delegations in Warsaw and Brussels this week.
Some EU lawmakers are urging the European Commission to cut its partnership with Tripoli altogether. In a letter addressed to the commissioners for migration and the Mediterranean, seen by POLITICO on Monday, a group of MEPs cite “gross human rights violations including human trafficking, forced labor, starvation, sexual violence and torture” by Libyan authorities.
EU support has “emboldened [the Libyan Coast Guard] to commit further abuses,” the letter states, calling for an immediate halt to EU funding for Libyan security forces and the redirection of support toward civil society and U.N. actors.
The lawmakers’ appeal follows a joint plea from multiple NGOs in September for Brussels to suspend ties after several attacks at sea.
EU officials have defended cooperation with Libyan authorities as “necessary” to save lives at sea, and the Commission has dismissed calls to end engagement with the North African country.
Libya — a major transit hub for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia — has been politically fractured since ruler Moammar Gadhafi was deposed in 2011. The country is largely ruled by two factions: a U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli, in western Libya, and a separate Russia-aligned government in Benghazi in the east.