European rights court rejects action against Italy over boat migrants
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday threw out an application accusing Italy of illegal pushbacks of boat migrants off the Libyan coast following an accident in which migrants, including children, died in 2017.
The Strasbourg court rejected as inadmissible a complaint alleging "refoulement by proxy" on the part of the Italy's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC). The Italian authorities had not illegally tasked the Libyan coastguard with taking back migrants after their boat had got into difficulties, it ruled.
The case concerned a maritime operation to rescue a rubber dinghy transporting some 150 people which left Libya in the night of November 5-6, 2017 aiming for Europe. The applicants said that the MRCC had placed them at risk of ill-treatment and death by allowing a Libyan ship to take control of the rescue.
According to the plaintiffs, a number of migrants, including children, died in the incident. Seventeen survivors from Ghana and Nigeria made the application to the court.
According to the ruling, the Italian coastguard signalled the need for rescue to ships in the vicinity and informed the Libyan authorities, as the migrants' boat was in their zone of responsibility.
A Libyan ship was the first at the scene, causing waves that led to the deaths of several migrants, according to the plaintiffs. They also alleged that the crew had struck and threatened people in the sea.
The Sea-Watch 3 charity ship also reached the scene and rescued migrants.
The court had earlier ruled against Italy for conducting pushbacks. In the current case, the plaintiffs charged Italy with forcible pushbacks "by proxy" by collaborating with the Libyan vessels. They saw this as a so-called "pullback."
The court rejected the argument, even though Italy financially supports the maritime operations of the Libyan authorities. It based its ruling in part on the site of the rescue and on the fact that there was no indication that the Libyan vessel was under Italian control.
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