In a letter addressed to Italy's Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, and made public on Friday 21 February, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights (COE), Dunja Mijatović, calls on the Italian government to include human rights guarantees in the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Libya.
Referring to "the current reality on the ground in Libya", Ms Mijatović also called on Italy to suspend cooperation activities with the Libyan coastguard when these lead to the return to Libya of migrants intercepted at sea.
This interruption in cooperation is not possible, "because the figures tell us that we must continue to work in this direction" the Italian government replied in a letter signed by its permanent representative to the CoE, Michele Giacomelli.
"Negotiations with the Libyan government have just begun", he said, referring to the memorandum and "the amendments proposed by Italy", which "include, inter alia, explicit references to the acceptance of international humanitarian law, including the principles and objectives of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees".
Italy also says it is "very eager to cooperate with other international partners, including the CoE and its member states, to support the efforts of international organisations to ensure the protection of asylum seekers and migrants in Libya, to establish humanitarian corridors and programmes for the evacuation and resettlement of migrants".
A "call for more solidarity" also issued by the Commissioner for Human Rights. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)