According to official figures, at least 2,400 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean between July 2019 and December 2020, but this total must undoubtedly be revised upwards, says the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, in a report published on Tuesday 9 March. In it, she takes stock of the implementation by the organisation’s Member States of its Recommendation (2019) on rescuing migrants at sea. The assessment is “deplorable in terms of human rights”, she said, noting only “some limited progress”.
Ms Mijatovic clearly questions the gradual withdrawal of State vessels in the Mediterranean, linked to arrangements made to hamper rescue operations by NGOs, decisions taken to delay landings, and the lack of designated safe ports. “Cooperation activities with third countries have been enhanced”, she notes, but this has been done “despite the undeniable evidence of serious human rights violations”. The freedom given to the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrants along the Central Mediterranean migration route is particularly worrying in this respect.
In order to halt this dramatic decline in the protection of migrants at sea, the Commissioner once again calls on European countries to implement her 2019 recommendations.
“Member States must no longer delay taking action to save lives. It is a matter of life and death – and of the credibility of European countries’ commitment to human rights”, she concludes.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/30xzd3D (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)