Thread by @JFCrisp

This report (funded by the EU itself) provides a devastating critique of EU policy towards the refugee/migration situation in Libya. A few extracts follow:
eunpack.eu/sites/default/…’s%20Crisis%20Response%20in%20Libya.pdf

"By mid-2017, EUNAVFOR MED has contributed to the arrest of 109 suspected smugglers. Most of the apprehended individuals are reportedly 'small fish', and their conviction does not contribute significantly to disrupting the business model of the migrant smuggling indurtry."

On training the Libyan coastguard. "Official documents stress that this module placed substantial emphasis on applicable human rights law, of which we found no conclusive evidence."

"Some interviewees suggested that training courses on human rights were limited to a few days; those on gender to a few hours, with none being adequately monitored. In some cases a checklist mentality might have taken precedence over a genuine commitment to core EU values."

"The monitoring of progress and the evaluation of the impact of training modules tailored to the Libyan coastgaurd has proved particularly controversial. For the first year, in fact, no specific mechansm had been put in place to this end."

"By the end of 2017, the monitoring of the training courses was still unsystematic, esentially based on the collection of anecdotal evidence and single-day visits."

"The available information on applicants [for the coastguard] is often very poor. The dire situation of Libya's judicial system has hampered data collection to the extent that the vetting procedure may have fallen short of appropriate standards of due diligence."

"Some individuals accused of being responsible for smuggling oil and trafficking human beings appear amongst the beneficiaries of EU trainings."

"Reports about the alleged misconduct of Libyan coastguard officers have raised doubts about the effectiveness of this strategy. Libyan coastguards have been accused of aggressive and abusive behaviour vis-a-vis migrants and international NGOs."

"Libyan coastguard officers collude with smuggling and trafficking networks. These outcomes were not unpredictable. The literature on protection economies in Libya warned about how purely security-oriented responses to irregular migration prove to be largely ineffective."

"Short-sighted security responses may well lead to the unwarranted legitimization of highly controversial security actors. 'The EU is subcontracting to crooks and thieves'."

"Assisted voluntary returns risk being unsustainable. In the first place, an individual repatriation from a detention centre where grave violations are the norm seems to be less than a 'voluntary' choice than a mere necessity."

"Libya's legal framework makes the violation of the right to non-refoulement systeamtic, access to legal remedy impossible and impunity widespread."

"The generalized resort to detention for the management of irregular migration in Libya is, at best, something the EU should condemn and not support,"

UN Human Rights chief: "The international community can't turn a blind eye to the horrors endured by migrants in Libya & pretend that the situation can be remedied by improving detention conditions. The EU's interventions have done nothing so far to reduce the level of abuses."

Compare with this UNHCR tweet from yesterday:

"EU leadership in responding to refugee crises is crucial, in Europe and in the world.
UNHCR is with the @EU_Commission in upholding the key European values of solidarity and cooperation.
@FedericaMog"