The forced removal of 227 men and women to Libya by Italian authorities is absolutely unacceptable.
With no opportunity to make an asylum claim these migrants now risk ill‐treatment or being pushed
back into the arms of their persecutors.

On May 6th, 2009, three boats carrying 227 migrants were saved by a merchant vessel and offloaded
onto Italian coastguard boats in waters belonging to the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone (thirty‐five
miles off the island of Lampedusa). These migrants did not have an opportunity to make a claim for
asylum. Within 24 hours a decision to remove them to Libya was taken by the Italian government.

Hailed as a historic development in the fight against irregular migration, this decision totally ignores
the fact that many people making the crossing are in fact in need of international protection.

These migrants should have been given the opportunity to make their asylum claim and have their
needs for international protection assessed. Of the 75% of migrants who made this same
Mediterranean crossing to Italy in 2008 and claimed asylum, 50% received some sort of international
protection. These figures clearly tell us that a significant number of migrants who cross by boat are
in need of protection.

As EU policy further restricts paths to legal migration, migrants are using increasingly irregular and
extremely dangerous routes to get to Europe. Libya does not offer these migrants any sort of
protection, having never signed the UN Geneva Convention of 1951, and without any effective sort
of asylum system.

In Libya, persons found to be in need of protection continue to be detained and deported back to
their country. Migrants and refugees in Malta repeatedly describe how they were detained for
months in Libya, in terrible conditions, and severely ill‐treated for breaching immigration regulations.
Their testimonies are supported by several reports by UNHCR and Amnesty International.

Italy's actions openly breach the European Convention of Human Rights, the right to asylum, as
enshrined by Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and the EU
Asylum Procedures Directive. All European states are bound by these human rights laws, as they are
by the principle of non-refoulement; stating that no person be sent to countries where they being
subject to torture or cruelty, or inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment.

States have a right and duty to control their borders, but in accordance with these laws. Today's
actions by Italy undermine the core values of the entire European Union.

JRS offices in Europe urge Member States of the European Union to ensure that:
 - all asylum seekers within their effective jurisdiction are allowed access to a territory where they can
   seek asylum, so all in need of protection can be identified and granted the protection; and
 - no one is sent to a country where they may face serious violations of their human rights.


CONTACT:

Donatella Parisi
JRS Italy
d.parisi@fondazioneastalli.it
Tel: +39 (06) 6992 5099

Joseph Cassar
JRS Malta
josephcassar@jesuits.net
Tel: +356 (79) 270 409

Philip Amaral
JRS Europe
europe.advocacy@jrs.net
Tel: +33 2 250 32 23