SAR operations by NGOs: new report inverts the relation of causality and clarifies role of NGOs

During the last months the NGOs that conduct the Search and Rescue (SAR) operations in the Mediterranean have been at the centre of a political and media storm.The report by Forensic Oceanography assesses that a toxic rhetoric has been created where the only victims are the NGOs, and most importantly no concrete evidence has been found in this “criminalization campaign”.The report goes beyond, and addresses not only the accusation of collusion in smuggling per se, but rather it challenges the assumptions reinforcing this accusation.

News Highlights: Eritrean conference in the Netherlands, Slave markets in Libya

In this week’s news highlights, the Dutch-Eritrean community and Dutch politicians are disturbed by an Eritrean conference with a high-level official in attendance, a report shows possible scenarios for Europe’s refugees and migrants, and IOM has disturbing reports on slave markets and extortion in Libya. In the Horn of Africa, Djibouti hosts many refugees and there are reports of child abduction in Ethiopia by a South Sudanese tribe. Furthermore, there are concerns about how EU aid is affecting Sudan’s “militia state”.

Report: Trends in human trafficking and smuggling in post-revolutionary Libya

The smuggling activity in Libya is nothing new. However, many big changes were brought on by the 2011 revolution. A research report from March 2017 by author Mark Micallef from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime highlights, through a multi-layered and cross-country field research, several consequences that emerged from the smuggling activity in the aftermath of the Libyan Revolution.