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Amnesty calls on EU to reconsider Libya cooperation over migrant abuse

The rights group called on the European Union to make support for Libya's coast guard conditional upon ending longstanding abuse of migrants.
Dozens of migrants, from Egypt, Morocco, Somalia and Sierra Leone, are assisted by a team of aid workers of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, after spending more than 20 hours at sea while fleeing Libya on board a precarious boat in international waters, in the Central Mediterranean sea, on September 08, 2020. (Photo by Ricardo GARCIA VILANOVA / AFP) (Photo by RICARDO GARCIA VILANOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Amnesty International called on the European Union to reconsider its cooperation with Libyan authorities after thousands of migrants en route to Europe this year were intercepted and subjected to a litany of abuses in the war-ravaged country. 

In a report published Thursday, the London-based rights group urged the EU to make any further support to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) conditional on ending “long-standing patterns of abuse against refugees and migrants, including by state officials and affiliated militias.” 

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