PRO ASYL Presseerklärung | Press Release

13 October 20034

Schröder, Fischer and Schily at summit in Rome

Mass deportations to Libya PRO ASYL calls on Chancellor:
Condemn breach of law of nations!

PRO ASYL calls on Chancellor Schröder to clearly condemn the Italian mass deportations to Libya. A few days after the Italian government’s striking breach of the law of nations, the unbearable silence in European capitals has to be broken. Today’s German-Italian consultations are the best occasion to do so.

Italy, which is one of the founding countries of the European Community, deliberately violated the Geneva Refugee Convention. The Italian airlift mass deportations bring damage not only to the foundations of international refugee protection but also to the European protection of human rights. Without examination of their flight reasons, more than 1.100 persons were flown out to Tripoli. For days, the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was denied access to the persons who were soon to be deported. Similarly, the authorities in Tripoli do not give access to the refugees that were being deported from Italy.

According to the Italian TV channel SkyTG 24, hundreds of persons deported from Lampedusa were simply transferred to the desert near Libya’s Southern border.

PRO ASYL reminds of the fate of eighteen refugees who in September of 2004 were deported to Libya’s common border with Niger by the Libyan regime. They were exposed to the desert and died with thirst. Except for the outcry of human rights organisations, UNHCR and a few individual politicians, there has not been one noteworthy reaction from the side of the member states and the institutions of the European Union. If the EU stood by its own contractual principles, Italy’s actions would have to be qualified as violation of the “principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law” (Article 6and 7 TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION). Consequently, sanctions would have to be considered.

PRO ASYL expects of the Federal Government not only a clear condemnation of Italy. In addition, all German-Italian initiatives to build reception camps in North Africa have to be cancelled immediately. The fate of the deported asylum seekers must be clarified.