Di Maio: "The agreements with Libya can be improved but must be renewed". Deputies Pd, Leu and Iv: "Suspend understandings"

The agreements with Libya must be renewed but can be improved. For this reason, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will propose the convening of the Italian-Libyan commission set up by the Memorandum which will be tacitly extended for the next three years on Saturday.
Thus the Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio responded to the question time in the Chamber to the parliamentarians who questioned him requesting the suspension or the substantial modification of those agreements."A reduction in Italian assistance could result in a suspension of the activities of the Libyan Coast Guard with consequent greater departures, tragedies at sea and worsening conditions for migrants – Di Maio pointed out -. The document can be modified and improved, but it is undeniable how it contributed to significantly reducing arrivals from Libya, from 107.212 in 2017 to 2.722 in October 2019 and consequently deaths in the sea ". Italy, the minister claimed, "is the only effective partner of the Libyan authorities in the fight against trafficking in human beings: a possible denunciation of this agreement would represent a political vulnus in an already delicate phase of military conflict".

"The government intends to work to better modify the contents of the memorandum with particular attention to the centers and conditions of migrants and to this end I will propose the convening of the joint Italo-Libyan commission foreseen by article 3 of the memorandum," said the minister, according to which "we shall in particular encourage further involvement of the United Nations, civil society organizations and the international community to improve the assistance of migrants rescued at sea and the conditions of the centers, in light of the fact that Libya is not a signatory of the Convention on the Status of Refugees "."The government – continued Di Maio – is working with UNHCR, IOM and the European Commission to improve the conditions of the centers", while Italy will continue to support the voluntary repatriation from Libya managed by IOM and UNHCR and to work for the 'implementation of humanitarian corridors within the EU: I remember that Italy is the only country to have organized humanitarian evacuations headed by Libya of particularly vulnerable migrants ".

At the end, scheduled for Saturday, of the times in which the agreement could be canceled, therefore, nothing will happen as planned. If there is a change, it will happen later. The Minister of the Interior Lamorgese who this morning had stressed how the decision would be "political, of the entire government" will report to the House between Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

And 24 deputies, senators and MEPs of a left-wing Pd-Sinistra italiana-Leu and Italia Viva di Matteo Renzi's left-wing alignment ask to suspend the agreements with Libya. "We can't pretend not to know. Close detention centers." Signatories include Palazzotto, Muroni, Fratoianni, Orfini, Magi, Migliore, Pini, Raciti, Rizzo Nervo, Pastorino, Fassina, Occhionero, Ungaro, Fusacchia, Gribaudo, De Petris, Pharaoh, De Falco, Verducci, La Forgia, Nugnes, Bartolo , Majorino and Smeriglio. "The deterioration of the condition of stability in Libya and the information we have today on the condition of migrants imprisoned within governmental and non-governmental detention centers require us to start a series of reflections on policies to manage migration flows. The agreements with Libya contained in the Memorandum signed in 2017 and which is now starting to be automatically renewed are at the origin of a systematic violation of the human rights of people who try to escape from what is now considered a real hell. We cannot continue to turn from the "other part by pretending not to know what is the extent of the crimes we risk being co-responsible".

Hence the appeal: "We request that the Italian government immediately suspend the agreements currently in place concerning the support and coordination of the Libyan Coast Guard and the management of detention centers for migrants and that at the same time initiate the dismissal of the mission of support to the Libyan coast guard ".
The signatories also call for a new negotiation with the Libyan government to define a humanitarian evacuation plan and the restoration of a European rescue device.

Also for Lia Quartapelle, leader of the PD in the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Chamber, "It is not possible to proceed with the renewal of the agreements with Libya by way of a bureaucratic process. This is why we asked the Foreign Minister what the will of the government is about the need to renegotiate them and to the UN request to close the detention centers to evacuate asylum seekers in other countries ". During the Question Time in Montecitorio, Laura Boldrini underlined the need to "modify the memorandum of understanding with Libya, because in the meantime a civil war has broken out in Libya and it is not possible to consider it a safe haven".

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