European court rules Italy not liable for Libyan Coast Guard actions in fatal 2017 boat sinking

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Italy couldn’t be held liable for the actions of the Libyan Coast Guard, rejecting a case brought by a group of migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in a fatal boat sinking in 2017.

The court in Strasbourg, France, declared the case inadmissible, finding Italy didn’t have “effective control” of the expanse of waters off the coast of Tripoli where the small ship carrying around 150 people sank.

Twenty people died in the sinking. Around 45 survivors onboard the ship said they were taken to Tajura Detention Center in Tripoli where they were beaten and abused.

The judges found that the captain and crew of the Libyan vessel Ras Jadir had acted independently when they answered a distress signal in the early morning hours on Nov. 6, 2017.

Italy has supplied the Libyans with funding, vessels and training as part of an agreement to slow the numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. The judges found, however, that this support didn’t prove that “Italy had taken over Libya’s public-authority powers.”

A group of migrants was rescued by the humanitarian organization Sea Watch and were taken to Italy.

A ruling in favor of the 14 survivors who filed the complaint at the ECHR could have undermined international agreements made by several European Union countries with Libya, Turkey and others to prevent migrants from coming to European shores.

The ECHR handles complaints against the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. The intergovernmental organization isn’t an EU institution and was set up after World War II to promote peace and democracy.

Libya isn’t a member of the Council of Europe, so the court has no jurisdiction over the country’s actions.

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