GENEVA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- A new European Commission policy on Mediterranean Sea rescues of migrants, including stopping private ships from ferrying them, might result in more deaths of migrants at sea and is in contravention of the obligation to rescue people in distress, UN human rights experts said on Thursday in a press statement.
The EU's proposed new action plan includes a code of conduct for organizations operating rescue boats. Drawn up by Italy with the backing of Brussels, the code of conduct aims to stop privately-operated ships ferrying refugees to safety in Italy from waters off the Libyan coast.
It is also part of a wider EU plan to reduce the pressure of migrant arrivals, as Libya has also announced a search and rescue zone beyond its territorial waters, and is restricting access to international waters by humanitarian vessels, according to a statement by Felipe Gonzalez Morales, special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and Nils Melzer, special rapporteur on torture.
This will result in more deaths of migrants at sea, the experts said, adding that vessels of international organizations are currently providing up to 40 percent of all search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
The experts are highly concerned that the European Commission was trying to move Europe's borders to Libya.
According to the international law, migrants should be allowed to disembark at the nearest port where their lives and freedom would not be threatened, and should then receive information, care and equitable processing of their asylum claims.
"Libya simply cannot be regarded as a safe place to disembark and the EU policy is in denial of this fact," they said, as migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard will face indefinite detention in dire and inhumane conditions.
The UN experts urged the EU and Libya to bring more European rescue boats to the coast of Libya, and to relocate migrants and refugees to all Schengen member countries, instead of supporting measures which drive migration further underground and increase human suffering.
Statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that a total of 102,847 migrants arrived in Europe across the Mediterranean during the first half of 2017, comparing with 231,075 for the same period in 2016.
More than 83,000 of them landed in Italy, mostly from Libya. The UNHCR estimates that some 2,420 migrants have either died or got missing since the beginning of this year.
