Blog: Back to Old Tricks? Italian Responsibility for Returning People to Libya
On 10/11 May 2017 various news outlets reported a maritime operation by the Libyan authorities, in coordination with the Italian Search and Rescue Authority, in which 500 individuals were intercepted in international waters and returned to Libya. This operation amounted to refoulment in breach of customary international law and several treaties (including the Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights), and an internationally wrongful act is one for which Italy bears international legal responsibility.
Under Article 2 of the ILC Articles:
A State which aids or assists another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act by the latter is internationally responsible for doing so if:
