Italian civil society organizations, FOCSIV of the Faces of Migration project among them, have sent a letter to the International Maritime Organization to deregister the Libyan SAR zone. This is because the Libyan State is implementing unethical practices of human rights violations, if not state crimes, that undermine the law of the sea as a universal insurance mechanism for people who are at sea and seafarers in general, as well as resulting in refoulements to Libya that are illegal under international law.

Italian government with the support of European Union financing and policy is sustaining the Libyan SAR zone and indirectly the violation of human rights. We ask for a change. EU and Italy should transform their policy according to a real human rights based approach, taking a common resolution to build peace and safe migration policies in Libya with UN action.

Read the letter here