Ms Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui:

I have spent time in Libya in detention centres for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and on the MV Aquarius, the ship which MSF operates with SOS Méditerranée doing search and rescue at sea. MSF began its search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea in May 2015, after Italy discontinued Operation Mare Nostrum. At the time, it appeared that Europe was willing to allow people to die at sea in large numbers. We fear that is the case again today. Since then, MSF has rescued and assisted more than 76,000 people in peril and provided emergency healthcare to people on board our rescue ships. Time after time on board, we hear the stories of refugees and migrants who come through Libya. I would like to share a testimony that our nurse from Ireland collected on the Aquariusten days ago:

When they beat people and they saw the UN was coming, they would hide the beaten people in another room and they said to us: "Don't tell the UN anything that happens here, if you say that, we are going to kill you." They will threaten to kill us so nobody would say anything.

Unfortunately, this is one experience we have heard many times.

Last week’s European Council conclusions fall short of the humanitarian obligations of Europe. The only thing European countries seem to have agreed on is to block people at the doorstep of Europe regardless of how vulnerable they are or the horror they are escaping, and to demonise non-governmental search and rescue operations. This is a distraction. The real issue is that EU member states are putting migrants and refugees in a position where they have a choice between risking their lives at sea or being trapped and abused in Libya.

For a summit that was supposed to be the defining moment for the EU, governments appear to have only agreed on the lowest common denominator, hardening their stance on search and rescue and further dehumanising people in need, and turning migrants, refugees and asylum seekers into little more than commodities. The same governments that were just a few months ago condemning reports of slave markets in Libya seem today to have no hesitation in escalating policies that may increase the suffering of people trapped there, whose only crime is to have fled conflict, violence and poverty.

The European Council stated:

[it] will step up its support for the Sahel region, the Libyan Coastguard, coastal and southern communities, humane reception conditions, voluntary humanitarian returns, cooperation with other countries of origin and transit, as well as voluntary resettlement. All vessels operating in the Mediterranean must respect the applicable laws and not obstruct operations of the Libyan Coastguard.

It may sound innocuous but make no mistake, behind this wording there is a deliberate policy from EU member states to trap some of the most vulnerable people in Libya. MSF is directly witnessing the human cost of this policy at sea and in Libya.

We all agree that Libya is not a safe place, especially not for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Whether those who risk their lives at sea in overcrowded and unsafe dinghies are fleeing conflict, persecution or poverty, or are on the move for other reasons, what they all have in common is their experience of Libya, which is marked with physical and sexual violence, torture, forced labour, beatings, exploitation and all forms of abuse. Most of the people we assist at sea will have spent time in places of detention or in captivity, where they suffer and witness extreme levels of violence. Under the pretence of saving lives and disrupting the business model of smugglers and traffickers, the Libyan coast guard is supported and empowered by EU states to intercept people at sea and send them back to the very conditions they were seeking to escape.

I would like to share another testimony that our colleague from Ireland heard on the Aquarius:

When the Libyans caught me in the sea they took me to a place, a deportation camp. When they took me there was no deporting. There were so many things happening there. In the middle of the night they would wake up some ladies to sleep with them. Some of the women got pregnant in that situation. They would inject them to take away the pregnancy because the guards didn’t want the baby in that place. They would beat the women and inject them to take away the baby. One pregnant woman lost her life. They covered her with black lino. She had no good treatment, no hot water to clean her womb. Her baby was bleeding and the baby died. I stayed there for six months.

A rescue should conclude with a disembarkation of rescued people in a place of safety.

The Libyan coastguard intercepts people at the behest of European Union member states and forcibly returns them to land. People will end up back in these situations if they are brought back to Libya. This is a policy supported by European Governments.

The presence at sea of NGOs doing search and rescue is being questioned. We are seen as being up to no good. The reality is that at present, no NGO is doing search and rescue at sea. The four remaining NGOs are either banned and not allowed to operate or face criminal prosecution. Today the Lifelineteam is in front of a court in Malta for refusing to hand over to the Libyan coastguard the people it rescued. They are refusing because they believe that torture is wrong and because international law bans torture and refoulementto places of torture. However, they are the ones in court.

People are taken back to extreme levels of abuse in Libya. The kidnapping of migrants and refugees, holding them captive and using torture to obtain ransom is common. In one area, Bani Walid, where places of captivity are operated by traffickers, we donate 50 body bags a week, such as the mortality rate of the people held there. No one fleeing Libya should be intercepted at sea by the Libyan coastguard and forcibly returned. Libya is not a safe place and we all know this, so when the European Council states we should upgrade or step up our support to the Libyan coastguard, we need to be fully aware of what it means in concrete terms. People are intercepted in reckless operations by the Libyan coastguard and taken to these places of detention.

The European response to addressing the high number of drownings in the Mediterranean Sea is to seal off the coast of Libya and contain refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in a country where they are exposed to extreme and widespread violence and exploitation. Even if Irish and other European navies are not directly transferring rescued people to the Libyan coastguard, greater numbers of people are being forcibly returned to Libya as a result of European policies with the help of European money. The fingerprints of European states are everywhere.

For almost a year, the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre has been putting our rescue ships on standby as the Libyan coastguard is directed to the scene to intercept those fleeing the country. The standby can last for up to several hours. This further endangers vulnerable people. Saving lives is not a crime. Destroying search and rescue capacity will lead to more unnecessary deaths at sea and further entrap people. I want to share the latest figures from this morning. Since 8 June, when most of the NGOs were squeezed out of the Mediterranean, more than 500 people have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy, with the total for the year being 1,000. We are reaching a rate that one in ten people who try to cross the sea might drown or go missing. It used to be one in 60 people. We have been told the NGOs are a pull factor and that they are not doing good. NGOs are not present at sea today and people are dying in numbers we have never seen before.