Italy-Libya agreement, we sell another 14 fast boats to Libya to intercept migrants: the role of “Invitalia”

MILAN – Italy will provide 14 more boats to Libyan militias to intercept and repel people fleeing to the Mediterranean. It is learned from Other economy, monthly, directed by Duccio Facchini, born on the initiative of a group that operates in the field of solidarity economy and international cooperation. The contract was definitively awarded in the spring of this year for 6.65 million euros as part of a procedure managed by Invitalia, the national agency owned by the Ministry of Economy which on paper should deal with the “attraction of investments and business development” and which instead signed an agreement with the Ministry of the Interior since August 2019 to guarantee ” technical support also on the Libyan front. The financial coverage of the new “boats” is guaranteed, like many others, by the “first phase” of the project “Support to integrated Border and migration management in Libya“(Sibmmil) dated December 2017, co-financed by the European Union, implemented by the Interior Ministry and included in the framework of the Trust Fund for Africa (Eutf).

12-meter inflatable boats with a cruising speed of 30 knots. On this occasion, these are 14 12-meter “tires with rigid fiberglass hull” – as stated in the tender specifications – capable of cruising at least 30 knots, with a range of 200 nautical miles. , approved for the transport of 12 people and intended to “carry out the institutional tasks of the Libyan authorities” (it is the second tranche of a procedure activated over three years ago). Which ones could not be specified. There is also little clarity on the identity of the Libyan beneficiaries on the part of Invitalia, whose CEO is Bernardo Mattarella. In fact, the documents do not refer to either the General Administration for Coastal Security (GACS) or to the Directorate for the Fight against Illegal Immigration (DCIM), which operates under the Libyan Ministry of the Interior, as to a generic “Libyan police “.

A company known all over the world. Who secured the order, with a 5% discount on the auction basis, was the company B-Shiver Srl based in Rome. B-Shiver is the business name of the brand Novamarineborn in Olbia in 1983 and then acquired over the years since Sno group. “It is one of the must-haves worldwide because it has made a revolution in the field of inflatable boats, with the combination of fiberglass and tubular hulls”, explains the managing director Francesco Pirro in a company video. B-Shiver it not only deals with the construction of the 14 fast boats but is also in charge of “providing a familiarization course on the management of boats for Libyan personnel”: 30 hours spread over five days. In the latest version of the specifications, the possibility of arranging “metal lockers suitable for the custody of weapons” in each cockpit would seem to have disappeared, as the Nautical Center of the State Police had hypothesized in the early stages of the tender procedure.

An agreement that has favored abuse and exploitation. The Italian supplies to Libya to strengthen the delegated rejection mechanism continue, therefore, more than five years after the memorandum between Rome and Tripoli which is about to be renewed. An agreement that resulted in “abuse, exploitation, arbitrary detention and torture”, as denounced by over 40 Italian human rights organizations that promoted a press conference and a demonstration in Piazza dell’Esquilino in Rome on 26 October to “ask Italy and to Europe to recognize its responsibilities and not renew the agreements with Libya ”(from Arci to Asgi, from MSF to Emergency, from the Migrantes Foundation to Intersos, from Sea-Watch to Amnesty International Italy).

The deadline of November 2 to withdraw the memorandum. “If the Italian government does not decide on its revocation by 2 November – the NGOs recall -, the Italy-Libya memorandum will be automatically renewed for another three years. This is an agreement that for the past five years has had dramatic consequences on the lives of thousands of migrant and refugee women, men and children ”. In fact, from 2016 to October 2022 over 120 thousand people were intercepted at sea by the so-called Libyan coast guard and forcibly returned to Libya (source International Organization for Migration Oim). “A country that cannot be considered safe”.

The Libyan abyss described several times by independent missions. The contours of the Libyan abyss have been described several times, among others, by the Independent Mission on Libya of the United Nations which at the end of June 2022 presented a (yet another) report on the point to the UN Human Rights Council. “Several migrants interviewed by the Mission said they had suffered sexual violence at the hands of traffickers and smugglers, often with the aim of extorting money from families, as well as government officials in detention centers, employers or other migrants – it reads -. The risk of sexual violence in Libya is such and well known that some migrant women and girls take contraceptives before leaving to avoid unwanted pregnancies due to such violence ”. It is institutional violence. “The continuous, systematic and widespread character of these practices by the Directorate for the fight against illegal immigration (DCIM) and other actors involved reflects the participation of middle and high level officials in the cycle of violence against migrants ”.

The brutality of rejections by proxy. The brutality does not disrupt the promoters of the refoulement strategy by proxy, conducted in the total lack of transparency on the overall use of the funds. For example, those of the Revolving Fund pursuant to Law 183/1987, which also includes a “sub-chapter” dedicated to the expenses for project initiatives “in favor of the State of Libya”. When this summer we asked the Inspectorate General for Financial Relations with the European Union (Igrue) of the Ministry of Economy for a list of the payments made, the beneficiaries, the reasons for payment and the details and content of the spent in Libya, the latter referred to the Interior Ministry, arguing that transparency was in the hands of that administration, “owner of the program”. The Ministry of the Interior, however, denied access because “the extrapolation of the requested items would entail a workload that would aggravate the ordinary activities of the administration”. The typical smokescreen also replicated for the 2019 agreement between Invitalia and the Interior Ministry, the text of which has been sent to us with cancellations above the financial amounts and orphan of the attachments, i.e. of the substance.

* Duccio Facchini, director of Altrigianato