PARIS: European authorities should not be sending migrants trying to reach the continent back to Libya until the security situation there has stabilized, the chief of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
“The way migrants are treated in Libya is horrendous, where we hear over and over stories of forced labor, forced sexual abuse, torture,” Kenneth Roth said in an interview as the group released its annual report on risks around the globe.
While acknowledging Europe’s right to restrict immigration after hundreds of thousands have poured into member states in recent years, Roth criticized a Brussels-backed deal that helps Libya block migrants from trying to reach Europe.
“The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said that more migrants are dying inside Libya than die once they get in a boat to cross the Mediterranean. So that gives you a sense of how bad things are,” Roth said.
At least 3,100 migrants died or disappeared trying to cross to Europe last year, the IOM has said, though attempts have slowed since the deal by Libya and Italy, the main destination, to halt the flow.
Shocking images last year of black Africans being sold in Libya have led European officials to stop returning migrants to the country, Roth said.
“But they’re trying to do indirectly what they can’t do directly by building up and training the Libyan coast guard so that the Libyans on their own can simply return people back to the traffickers,” he said.
“You can help them return home if that’s what they want, but nobody should be forcibly returned to Libya.”
Roth, a 62-year-old former lawyer, also underscored the risks as more populist leaders come to power around the world, while criticizing Western governments for not pushing hard enough against leaders accused of rights abuses in their own countries.
While he qualified the arrival of US President Donald Trump as “a moment of despair,” he was also critical of his predecessor Barack Obama over failing to close the Guantanamo prison or take stronger action against Syria’s Bashar Assad.
“I admire President Obama,” Roth said, but “he wasn’t willing to pay the political price to actually close Guantanamo ... He wasn’t really willing to do anything to stop Assad committing mass atrocities in Syria.”
HRW, which publishes about 100 reports on dozens of countries each year, has seen its prominence grow over the past two decades, becoming a multinational advocacy group employing some 425 people.
It is backed by private donations from individuals and foundations, including that of US billionaire George Soros.
“Everybody likes to pretend that they respect human rights; When we’re able to show that they fall short, it’s embarrassing,” Roth said.
Nobody should be forcibly returned to Libya, says HRW
Nobody should be forcibly returned to Libya, says HRW
US says Mexican cartel drones breached Texas airspace
- Drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats
- US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military
HOUSTON: The Trump administration said Wednesday that Mexican cartel drones caused the temporary closure of a Texas airport, but some Democratic lawmakers pushed back, suggesting US military activity was responsible for the disruptive shutdown.
The report of the drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats, and could provide a pretext for President Donald Trump to follow through on his threats to expand the strikes to land.
Trump has specifically threatened to attack cartels inside Mexico, which said it had “no information” on drones at the border.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late Tuesday the airspace over the Texas border city of El Paso would be shut to all aircraft for 10 days, citing unspecified national “security reasons,” only to lift the closure after less than 24 hours.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” adding: “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
A US administration official meanwhile said the breach was by “Mexican cartel drones,” and that US forces “took action to disable the drones,” without providing specifics.
But Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, questioned the Trump administration’s explanation, saying it was “not what we in Congress have been told.”
“The information coming from the administration does not add up and it’s not the information that I was able to gather overnight and this morning,” Escobar told journalists.
And top Democratic lawmakers from the House Committee on Transportation suggested the Pentagon may have been responsible for the situation, saying defense policy legislation allows the US military to “act recklessly in the public airspace.”
The lawmakers called for a solution that ensures “the Department of Defense will not jeopardize safety and disrupt the freedom to travel.”
- War against ‘narco-terrorists’ -
US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military, with CNN saying the shutdown was the result of Pentagon plans to use a counter-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA.
The Pentagon referred questions on the closure to the FAA, which said when it announced the move that “no pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas” covered by the restrictions and warned of potentially “deadly force” if aircraft were deemed a threat.
It updated its guidance Wednesday morning, saying on X that the closure was lifted.
Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with “narco-terrorists,” carrying out strikes on alleged traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, while the US president has repeatedly said he plans to expand the strikes to land.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opposes US military intervention in her country but has so far managed to negotiate a fine diplomatic line with Trump.
She has stepped up extradition of cartel leaders to the United States and reinforced border cooperation amid tariff threats from Trump, for whom curbing illegal migration from Mexico was a key election promise.
Sheinbaum told a news conference Wednesday that she had “no information on the use of drones at the border,” but that her government was investigating.
The United States began carrying out strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in September, a campaign that has killed at least 130 people and destroyed dozens of vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
US officials have not provided definitive evidence that the vessels are involved in drug trafficking, prompting heated debate about the legality of the operations, which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings.
Trump also ordered a shocking special forces raid in Caracas at the beginning of January to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accused of leading a drug cartel.
