[alertnet.org] The
Italian government should immediately offer to take into Italy at least
11 Eritreans it had previously forced back to Libya and who are now
detained there and threatened with deportation back to
Eritrea, Human Rights Watch said today. The Italian Navy had previously
blocked these Eritreans from reaching Italy by sea and summarily
returned them to Libya without giving them the chance to claim
asylum.
"Italy never gave these people a chance to seek asylum, and now they are
at great risk of being dumped in the desert or deported to Eritrea,"
said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program
director at Human Rights Watch. "Italy bears responsibility for people
it pushed back to Libya, a country with no refugee law that has been
brutalizing them. Italy put them in this danger, Italy
should get them out." (more on alertnet.org)
