On Tuesday, 28 March, European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said, “we disagree” with the United Nations’ assessment, revealed the previous day, that the support that the EU provided to Libya “aided and abetted” the commission of crimes against migrants, who are tortured and forced into sexual slavery.
“I don’t agree with the claims that our money is going to finance the business model of the smugglers or of those who are misusing and mistreating people in Libya. Quite to the contrary, most of the money goes in order to take care of these very people”, added European External Action Service spokesperson Peter Stano.
According to him, the EU does not finance “any Libyan entity” but allocates money “which is then usually used by our international partners”, notably for the repatriation of migrants.
He specified that the EU was taking the concerns raised by the United Nations fact-finding mission “seriously”, adding that the EU had worked with the mission when it was in Libya, mainly through the EU delegation in Tripoli.
“The European Union [...] is committed to do[ing] as much as we can in the current circumstances in order to help to alleviate the situation of people stranded in Libya, mainly the migrants. And we are doing it also working with other partners, with IOM, with the UNHCR, etc.”, explained Mr Stano.
Pointing out that there were “incidents [and] issues which are [a] source of concern”, the spokesperson explained that the EU was trying to address them with its partners in Libya and with its international partners.
See the UN report: https://aeur.eu/f/62x (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)