Europe could be denounced for crimes against humanity in the management of migration flows

The goal of a group of lawyers is to bring the European Union as a defendant before the International Criminal Court. The accusation against Brussels and its officials, as well as for the representatives of the member countries at the commission of crimes against humanity, would be very serious: to have used Libya, a country that is not safe for migrants, to have managed the reduction of the flow migration for Europe. In this way the accusation comes close to obviousness, but the implications of the Libyan management of migrants include the use of abuses of violence and rapes perpetrated also against minors, as well as defenseless people. Certainly the accusation against the European Union is not to call it directly materially responsible for the violence, but that of having used Libya in a functional way to reduce migration flows, being aware of the conditions through which these reductions were achieved. If, on the one hand, the action is certainly meritorious, the denunciation goes as far as to make the legal evidence of a well-known affair, thanks to the chronicles documented by the press and repeatedly denounced by humanitarian organizations. In the 242 pages of the complaint to the Prosecutor of the Court it is estimated that between 2014 and about mid-2017 at least 14,500 people have drowned in the stretch of sea between Libya and Italy, while 40,000 migrants have been intercepted and taken back to the Libyan refugee camps, where they are detention and torture. The collaboration between the Libyan navy and the European authorities is something ascertained and safe and technically, the Libyans would not have the capacity to act in a way such as to intercept migrants in front of their own sea, without adequate support. The denials of the European institutions, of having acted in agreement with the Libyan authorities for the guarantee of human rights, have repeatedly been denied by inquiries and testimonies about the situation of serious violations ascertained in the Libyan refugee camps, where migrants are forced to suffer degrading situations and where they are constantly at risk of life. One of the problems about the possible investigation of the International Criminal Court is the verification of its independence from the European Union, which is one of the main supporters. From the political point of view, this complaint highlights the wrong strategy of the Union to have the migration problem managed by other international subjects, Libya, precisely, and Turkey, without having the capacity to directly manage the problem, which is a consequence of the great contrasts on this subject among the member states, from the inability to enforce the decisions common to the unruly and substantially members, from the absence of planning and the ability to forecast the phenomenon. Apart from the obvious and sharable considerations of a humanitarian and legal nature, which are the basis of the complaint, the question invests the political nature of the seriousness of the fact: to solve a problem of community importance it is preferred to delegate another subject, even going to work in its national waters, to prevent the international relief obligation from forcing EU members to accept refugees. It should be remembered that in countries far less advanced than the Union, such as Jordan or Kenya, to give some examples, reception is organized without resorting to intermediaries of dubious guarantee. This highlights the failure of European policies and, in terms of image, causes significant damage to an institution like the European one built on other constraints. The forecasts of the experts say that this kind of causes can hardly be successful, however having certified and brought to the forefront of the international audience the unfair practices of the European Union, can determine a different common feeling and a different sensibility with respect to a problem that cannot to be addressed with the intention of hiding it as it has done so far in Brussels. Even in a political framework where the structures have changed, the migration problem and the aspects connected to it cannot be managed violently and against international laws: at least the complaint may have the merit of a new attention to the phenomenon.