On Tuesday 27 November the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee reviewed the situation of 600,000 migrants still living in Libya.
Representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) discussed rescue and evacuation operations for migrants to safer countries, such as Niger.
The European Parliament Legal Service was also invited to give its opinion on controlled centres and regional disembarkation platforms in non-EU countries, mainly in North Africa. These two concepts were developed in June by the European Council, but have not borne fruit since then (see EUROPE 12051).
The Legal Service's opinion reassured MEPs on one point: a regional disembarkation platform would only make sense in a non-EU country considered safe, which excludes Libya.
On controlled centres in the EU, European Parliament legal experts do not a priori consider this concept to be incompatible with European asylum law. However, their analysis cannot be very detailed since the concept has not developed and has not been further clarified by Member States.
On the situation in Libya, the IOM reported some progress, although the living conditions of migrants are still extremely difficult for the 600,000 people on the ground. 15,000 people were transferred to other countries as part of a programme launched in late 2017.
The IOM would like to develop more relays in the country and to deploy agents. It expressed concern that in recent incidents, rescued migrants refused to disembark in Libya and were detained. However, for the Organization, the overall number of people in detention has decreased.
The EEAS presented the rescue operations, as well as operations to combat the smuggling of migrants, through Operation Sophia. As part of this mission, 34,000 people were repatriated in 2017 from Libya to other safe countries. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)