News Highlights: NGO demands Libya war crime investigation, UN condemns Italy’s rescue fines, EU elections key for migration policy

In this week’s news highlights: UN and NGOs condemn Salvini’s rescue fines; France continues deporting Sudanese nationals; Activists protest EU cooperation with Eritrea; Federica Mogherini visits Horn of Africa; Frontex starts first operation outside EU territory; Testimony of a Ugandan woman on the Greek island of Samos; Amnesty states war crimes may have been committed in Libya; UN envoy warns international community to stop arms flow;  Khalifa Haftar refuses ceasefire; Christians in Eritrea arrested ahead of independence day; Concern for IDPs in Ethiopia; Eritrean President meets with Transitional Military Council in Sudan; Sudan protesters call for strike; South Sudanese Government is sued by civil society over unity delay.

News Highlights: Amnesty: US should address human rights in Eritrea, Dublin Regulation challenged, Italian law to expel people from centres

In this week’s news highlights: A call to US Secretary of State to address human rights in Eritrea; UN condemns mass rapes in South Sudan; Proposals for Ethiopia’s new law on hate speech; US embassy reopens in Somalia; IFAD President urges to invest in the youth in Africa; Presidents of Egypt and Sudan to cooperate on security; Dead end in Libya leads refugees to Morocco; New Italian law expels migrants from reception centres; Tribunal ruling states that UK cannot send vulnerable migrants to Italy without assurance; Commissioner Avramopoulos suggests asylum procedure will voluntarily fall to EU Member States; and the need to put emphasis on agriculture in the Post-Cotonou agreement.

EU migration collaboration with Egypt: critical assessments

The European Union (EU), in order to stem migration, has made deals with Northern African countries like Libya. The latest plan is that Egypt will be the new partner of the EU in helping to decrease the movement of migrants and refugees towards Europe. The collaboration with Libya has faced criticism from international organizations and the civil society as migrants and refugees become trapped in inhumane conditions. The UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has also characterized the EU’s policy of helping Libyan authorities in detaining migrants as “inhuman”. Collaboration with Egypt faces its own critical assessments, as it is a country with dubious human rights records.