Opposition groups in Italy are accusing the government of freeing the head of Libya's judicial police because it relies on Libyan security forces to check the flow of African migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Osama Njeem was released despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court over a string of human rights abuses, including murder, torture and rape. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks to Lorenzo Kamel, author and professor of history at the University of Turin.
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00:00This is Apropos.
00:04Opposition groups in Italy are accusing the government of freeing the head of Libya's
00:09judicial police because it relies on Libyan security forces to check the flow of African
00:14migrants crossing the Mediterranean, saying authorities in Rome did not want to antagonise
00:20them by arresting such a high-profile figure.
00:23Osama Najim was released despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court over a
00:28string of human rights abuses, including murder, torture and rape.
00:33Our correspondents in Italy have been meeting one of his alleged victims, a migrant from
00:38South Sudan.
00:39France 24's Natalia Mendoza reports.
00:44Just like many other migrants who arrive in Italy, Lam finds it difficult to forget the
00:49nightmare he went through in Libya.
00:51After trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2020, he was sent to Mitiga prison on the
00:56outskirts of Tripoli.
00:57I was tortured.
00:58They tie your legs, they use electric wire, electric cable and plastic stick and they
01:07put your leg on the chair and they start beating you.
01:10During the night you can't sleep because of the screaming, the torturing and also the
01:14people who have been, because they kill people inside the prison too.
01:17They will be calling migrants to come and put the dead body in the body bag.
01:22The prison director, Osama al-Masri, the head of Libya's judicial police, who was
01:28arrested late January in Italy on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court
01:33for crimes against humanity.
01:35I saw al-Masri, yes.
01:38I saw him.
01:39He is the boss.
01:40He is in charge of everything.
01:41Al-Masri is running.
01:42We were trying to escape.
01:43He came with a pistol and he started beating us with the police, with his soldier.
01:51The moment I heard the news that al-Masri was arrested, I was so happy and then I saw
01:58that justice will take place.
02:02But Lam was rapidly disillusioned.
02:04Not long after, al-Masri was released and flown back to Tripoli on a plane chartered
02:09by the Italian government.
02:12Lam decided to lodge a complaint.
02:16We are accusing the prime minister, the defence minister and the justice minister of complicity.
02:21That's to say, to have aided al-Masri to escape from the legal proceedings awaiting him at
02:26the International Criminal Court by returning him to Libya.
02:31For this journalist who covers the judicial system in Italy, the liberation of the Libyan
02:36senior official is far from accidental.
02:40It was probably a question of national interest because the arrest could have caused diplomatic
02:45problems between Italy and Libya.
02:48The risk was that Libya would open the floodgates, creating an excessive influx of illegal migrants
02:54into Italy in retaliation.
02:57With this somewhat David and Goliath legal fight, Lam is hoping to get justice for himself
03:02and for the thousands of migrants who suffer from violence and torture in Libya.
03:07Well, to discuss, we're joined now by Lorenzo Camel, he's an author, also professor of history
03:14at the University of Turin.
03:16Lorenzo, thanks so much for being with us this evening.
03:19We heard some harrowing testimony from that man there in that report, a migrant.
03:24Libya has long been criticised, this is far from the first time, over its treatment of refugees.
03:30Why does not enough seem to be happening to clamp down on what's actually happening to
03:35these people before they get on boats to cross the Mediterranean?
03:40Yes, because the problem, let's say that the debates are always focused on an issue connected
03:47to al-Masri or figures like him.
03:51But the problem is that structural issues are not taken.
03:54So for instance, the reason why these people are moving and are trying to reach European
04:02shores.
04:03For instance, there is not much debate about the ongoing exploitation of African natural
04:09resources by European companies, as the Panama Papers was, for instance, confirming.
04:16There are over 1,400 European and American companies that, through tax havens, are exploiting
04:24still to date the natural wealth of these countries.
04:27There is not much debate, for instance, on the flows of weapons from European countries
04:33that are sold in African and Middle Eastern countries.
04:37And for instance, we know in Yemen and a number of other areas, this plays a major role.
04:45There is not much debate about climate migrants used to flee African countries because of
04:51the effect of climate change.
04:53And there is not much debate about the fact of the importance of moving from crisis management
04:59to crisis prevention.
05:02These include rejecting the policy of outsearching migration management, that is a short-term
05:08solution that has created an economic boom in a number of centers, some of them located
05:15in desert areas, becoming an industry that profits off the most vulnerable ones.
05:20So let's say that all these structural issues are largely missing.
05:24So in the debates that we have in Italy and other European countries, the debate is just
05:28about, let's say, we can't help all of them here, or other issues.
05:32Once again, these are debates that speak to the gut, to the instinct of people, but that
05:38do not take the structural condition why we see millions of people trying to move from
05:43these areas.
05:44As you say, short-term policies are often formulated with an eye more on public opinion
05:49rather than on longer-term solutions, Lorenzo.
05:52What do you make of the fact that just today the EU paved the way, essentially, for member
05:56states to set up migrant return centers outside the EU, as we have seen Italy doing when
06:03it comes to Albania?
06:05Yes, once again, these are short-term solutions.
06:10While if this European politician would be serious in tackling the situation, for instance,
06:15would start to tackle the fact that uranium from Niger, where 87% of the population has
06:23no access to electricity, produce about 33% of France's electricity.
06:29So one third of the electricity that is produced in France.
06:32Or if you think in Nigeria, where the largest number of migrants arrive in Italy, we know
06:38that OPL 245, that is the largest oil block in Africa.
06:43So we know that somehow, thanks to a system that also take advantage of local corrupt
06:49leadership, somehow local population in Nigeria don't get one single penny out of these major
06:55natural resources.
06:56So once again, we focus on Albania, we focus on these shortcuts, because somehow it's a
07:02way of hiding the structural issues, and somehow it's a way also of not discussing it publicly,
07:10because for politicians this would consider as a major problem.
07:15Once that you face these issues, you re-touch the structural interests behind migration.
07:20Does this suggest, do you think, does it signal a significant change in policy from Europe?
07:25Or is it just simply down to the pressure that's being applied by countries like Italy?
07:31I think that there is not any structural change, but change will arrive.
07:37It's enough to say that according to the United Nations, the population in Africa will grow
07:41from 1.2 billion to 2.5 billion by 2050, while some European countries will see their
07:50population decline.
07:52For example, my country in Italy will face a decline of population of 2 million in a
07:58better of 20 years.
08:00So once again, these huge changes, demographic changes, at a certain point will oblige this
08:05country, my country included, to take on the structural solution, while still today we
08:10focus much on NGOs and other issues that once again are easy targets, but they are
08:16not really the important issues when we discuss the structural solution to take all of that.
08:21And as we've been reporting, Italy is being accused of releasing Libyan officials, for
08:25example, wanted on international arrest warrants in return for limiting migrant flows coming
08:32from Libya.
08:33So what is Italy actually doing to manage migratory flows coming from Northern Africa?
08:40And what kind of support are those countries in Northern Africa actually being given?
08:44Yes, let's say outsearching, that's the main solution that has been found also, of course,
08:52in relation to Turkey, so the other side, the Eastern Mediterranean.
08:56So outsearching has been somehow the easy shortcut that we have witnessed in the last
09:03years, or let's say the last decades.
09:07What are somehow the outcomes of all of that?
09:09We know.
09:10So we know reports, as you also are documenting, of beating, rape, killings, particularly since
09:16the 2017 Italy deal.
09:19Migrants today are sold openly in places like Seba and other cities in Libya.
09:26So this is something that somehow the outcomes of outsearching migration is precisely that.
09:32And what kind of role then is Libya playing in managing those kind of rescue operations
09:36and also in returning migrants to their home countries?
09:42Let's say that four fifths of migration are internal migration within Africa.
09:49So let's say that just a tiny percentage of this amount of people move toward Europe.
09:56So let's say that this is mainly an African issue that is managed by African countries.
10:03So the Libyan authority in these last few years, of course, was speaking about dictators
10:09that are exploiting these often using also the most brutal means.
10:17So they are exploiting this in order to gain economical benefit and also in order to be
10:22able to remain in power.
10:25So let's say that from an internal Libyan perspective, the goal, the end game is to
10:31keep the power and still profiting out of this, of the sufferance of the millions of
10:37human beings.
10:38And European leaders obviously caught up in the context of the security challenges that
10:43are facing the continent.
10:45Would you be concerned that the issue of migrant rights, of what's happening to these people
10:49coming from Africa, that that might flip through the cracks, so to speak, that it's not something
10:54that the EU is going to be necessarily focusing on?
10:56Yes.
10:57So let's say now there are at the moment some other priorities, so this RE-ARM program and
11:04so on.
11:05So another program that speaks once again to the guts of people, to the instinct of
11:09people that, but however, in another scenario does not take the structural issue.
11:14On a more general level, I think that until policymakers, and some of them, of course,
11:19understood that, but until policymakers do not realize that Africa is a voice to be heard
11:24and not a problem to be solved, to quote a Nigerian scholar, that is Abiodun Malawu.
11:28So until that we don't reach that stage, certainly these issues, the ways, the shortcuts that
11:35I was mentioning before will remain the pillars of the policies implemented by European powers
11:41in relation to this context.
11:42Lorenzo, we'll have to leave it there for now.
11:44Thanks so much for being with us this evening.
11:46That's Lorenzo Camel, author and professor of history at the University of Turin in Italy.
11:52Well, that's it from us for now.