In a press release issued on Thursday 4 June, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, returned to the subject of the status of the 450 people detained on board four vessels at the outer limit of Malta's territorial waters. She stated that keeping them at sea for more than a month is “an unsustainable solution” and “requires immediate action”.
The Commissioner called for the migrants to be provided with assistance that will not exempt European states from “making a quick decision on a fair and equitable system for responsibility sharing”, a mechanism that the European Commission yesterday confirmed it is working on at EU level.
Malta and Libya also announced on Thursday that two coordination centres will be set up in July – in Tripoli and Valletta – to combat illegal immigration to Libya and the Mediterranean region. Mijatović established a red line for joint operations with Tripoli when she reaffirmed that any cooperation with the Libyan authorities that led to returns to countries where respect for human rights is not guaranteed would be suspended. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)