(ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 18 - ''Ten weeks on, finally we get to
know the contents of the agreement signed between the Interior
ministers of Italy and Libya on April 3 2012. However, this is
only thanks to 'Libileaks', and has not arrived in the form of a
communique from the government''. This is the reaction by the
'Consiglio italiano per i rifugiati' (Italian Council for
Refugees, CIR), who further note that ''in the text of the
accord, refugees and asylum seekers are not mentioned once,
despite all the evidence showing that there is a high number of
refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa present in Libya''.
The CIR also notes that ''There is no mention of the fact
that Libya, as the sole African state, has not yet ratified the
Geneva Convention on Refugees of 1951, nor of the fact that
there is no opportunity in Libya to request protection''.
The Council goes on to point out that last February, Italy
was condemned by the European Court for Human Rights for its
forced repulsion on the high sea of migrants back to Libya,
where, the Strasburg Court says, repulsed persons were at risk
of torture and inhumane treatment.
In the meeting between the two governments, the Council states, there was talk of re-opening the Libyan reception centres: these never existed as such, but were never anything other than detention centres where thousands of foreign citizens ''are still suffering inhuman treatment''.(ANSAmed)
In the meeting between the two governments, the Council states, there was talk of re-opening the Libyan reception centres: these never existed as such, but were never anything other than detention centres where thousands of foreign citizens ''are still suffering inhuman treatment''.(ANSAmed)
