Rights group claims EU ‘complicit’ in Libya’s migrants abuse

CAIRO: Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the European Union’s border and coast guard agency of being complicit in migrant abuses by Libya by allowing the North African country’s coast guard to intercept migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean Sea for southern Europe.

Following a data-based investigation repor t released by the New York-based watchdog last Thursday, it concluded that the agency, known as Frontex, uses its aerial surveillance technology to help Libyan forces locate migrant boats — rather than other rescue organisations or merchant ships also patrolling the Mediterranean.

Every year, thousands of migrants hoping to reach Europe make their way through Libya, where a lucrative trafficking and smuggling business has flourished in a country fragmented for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by different armed groups and foreign governments.