by Nick O’Connell
EU Political Analysis

13 November 2019

Two weeks ago human rights and migrant organizations like MotM pressured the Italian government to back away from the 2017 Libya Memorandum.

This agreement legitimizes Libya’s inhumane treatment of migrants at the expense of Italian taxpayers.

And yet the government renewed the treaty through the works of Minister of the Interior Lamorgese, promising to gradually modify it and close the detention centers at a future time that remains undefined. 

Migrants of the Mediterranean has long reported on the incredible human rights abuses at the hands of Libyan authorities.

Richard was tortured for months in one of these detention centers. Fabulous ate a cup of a flour and water mixture and drank salty tap water for months while watching people die by his side.

Libya is not a safe harbor and the European Union must not rely on Libya’s government to detain thousands of people merely to avoid European landing and reception.

In light of this, there simply is no time to set up a joint committee to evaluate the ongoing situation, as Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio suggested.

The only tenable solution is to immediately close the centers and withdraw European funding until Libyan authorities comply with international human rights laws.  

Like thousands of other people, Richard and Sami have been held in long-term, arbitrary detention within a country that never ratified the 1951 Convention on Refugees.

This alone is enough to back away from the Libyan Memorandum. 

In an address to Parliament, Ms. Lamorgese criticized the inhumane Security Decree spearheaded by her predecessor, far-right leader Matteo Salvini. This is the first step towards a fairer immigration system, one that doesn’t criminalize the mere act of migrating. 

Asylum seekers throughout Italy are being displaced because of this law. Peter was recently forced to abandon his state housing. He now lives in one of Italy’s most squalid ghettos near stretches of agricultural fields––all part and parcel of a brutal system of migrant labor exploitation.

Again, Lamorgese recently met with NGO Search and Rescue Organizations to discuss ways to realign the government’s position and the non-profits’ work at sea. And while it is still to be seen whether the new Minister will follow up on the meeting, this is another step in the right direction.

This clear departure in rhetoric from the previous anti-migrant government already goes a long way. 

That’s because words matter.

They matter because anti-migrant rhetoric emboldens far right groups that would otherwise remain on the fringes of society. Italy’s far right leaders like Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni are firing up their electorate and legitimizing proto-fascist groups.

Holocaust survivor and Senator Liliana Segre, for example, was recently put under surveillance after her proposal for an anti-racism commission was passed.

Hostility towards Segre was amplified after her proposal was criticized by all of Italy’s rightist parties on the basis that it was biased. But defending Italy against racism is however an opportunity to strengthen its society––a chance to put humanity before politics––not blind partisan bias.

What happened in Italy about a century ago could very well reemerge today, and the worrisome polarization of Italian society is a symptom of a people that still fail to fully condemn racism towards the other.

In the 1920s, the scapegoats were leftists and minorities, today they are migrants.

At MotM we remain on the frontline, giving voice to the most vulnerable and marginalized, and calling out the government for its shortcomings.

We are committed to creating a narrative based not on hatred and anger but on stories of hope and integration––our only way forward.