The EU is keen to continue training the Libyan coastguard despite its well-known abuse of irregular migrants, a leaked report has shown. In other cases, they used methods "never observed before and not in compliance with [EU] training ... as well as international regulation," he said. The EU foreign service told AP that the coastguard training scheme "remains firmly on the table to increase the capacity of the Libyan authorities to save lives at sea", despite the setbacks, however. At least 65,362 people came to Europe using the central Mediterranean migration route last year, according to EU border control agency Frontex. But for its part, the international charity Doctors Without Borders, warned that more than 32,000 of those intercepted by the Libyan coastguard last year were: "brought back to systematic extortions, violence and abuse" in Libya's migrant detention camps.

Source: Libya Today January 26, 2022 06:30 UTC