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Prosecuting EU Officials for Crimes Against Humanity in the Central Mediterranean

International Criminal Court, 2019

On 3 June 2019, international lawyers Adv. Omer Shatz and Adv. Juan Branco submitted a Communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that provides evidence which “implicates European Union and Member States’ officials and agents in Crimes Against Humanity, committed as part of a premeditated policy to stem migration flows from Africa via the Central Mediterranean route, from 2014” and calls for the ICC to open an investigation into this matter.

The complaint focuses on three main aspects of the EU migration policies between 2015 and 2019: the transition from Italian rescue operation Mare Nostrum to Frontex Joint Operation Triton; the ousting of NGOs conducting search and rescue (SAR) missions; and the EU’s cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard; and claims that these policies resulted in:

  • The deaths by drowning of thousands of migrants (more than 20,000 deaths since 2015)
  • The refoulement of tens of thousands of migrants attempting to flee Libya
  • Complicity in the subsequent crimes of deportation, murder, imprisonment, enslavement, torture, rape, persecution and other inhuman acts, taking place in Libyan detention camps and torture houses (more than 100,000 since 2016)

In 2020, the ICC Chief Prosecutor confirmed to the EU Parliament that the case is being processed by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). Shortly after that, the Prosecutor confirmed the case has been declared admissible. In 2022, the UN confirmed that EU states are complicit in Crimes Against Humanity committed against ‘migrants’ in Libya. 

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 front-LEX collaborates with our partners in order to provide incriminating evidence to the OTP against officials of EU states and agencies implicated with countless Crimes Against Humanity of murder, deportation, enslavement, enforced disappearances, imprisonment, torture, rape and other inhuman acts.  

Resources

Advocacy

25/09/2019, German Bundestag, Adv. Omer Shatz’s intervention on the ICC case 

29/05/2020, Committee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, Adv. Omer Shatz’s intervention on the ICC case 

03/06/2019, EU Reporter, EU Commission’s official statement on the ICC case

Media


09/06/2021 À l’air libre (117) «Le plus grand trafiquant de migrants, c’est l’Union européenne»

Arte Adv. Omer Shatz countering Frontex Director Fabrice Leggeri

2019 Rai Play L’Approdo Omer Shatz accusa l’UE di crimini contro l’umanità