LibyaPolitics

Oxfam urges Italy to halt funding of Libyan Coast Guard

Oxfam, the world’s largest aid organization, said Italian funding for the Libyan coast guard continues to increase, despite the fact that people “are still dying in the Mediterranean, and the ways in which the so-called Libyan coast guard intervenes are known at this point.” “.

Oxfam asked the Italian government to freeze the funds it allocates for the coast guard in Libya, as the Italian government allocated an additional 500,000 euros in 2021 to support the activities of the Libyan coast guard, with a total of 32.6 million euros spent since 2017, the year of the agreement between Italy and Libya.

“Draghi is following the example of previous governments”

Paolo Pezzati, Oxfam policy advisor for humanitarian emergencies in Italy, said that while “people continue to die on average, as evidenced by the ongoing shipwrecks of the past few weeks, and with the tragedy in Lampedusa a few days ago; the government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi is working in full continuity with former officials on migration policies, as evidenced by requests to the Council of the European Union for increased EU involvement in promoting agreements with the Libyan authorities.”

“In fact, we are still moving forward in the same direction, in a country where smuggling and human trafficking have been partially transformed into detention operations with abuse and violence that everyone knows about at this point, thanks to this large influx of money.” He added.

Call to “Stop Funding Immediately”

He also called on the Italian parties in the ruling majority to immediately cut off funding to the Libyan Coast Guard, which this year alone has intercepted and returned migrants to Libya, three times the number of migrants during the same period last year.

According to Oxfam, What is required now is a drastic change in policies dealing with immigration, and the direct management of migrant flows, and not just closing immigration ports to countries such as Libya or Turkey.

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