France Drops Plan to Give Boats to Libya

Expand Migrants on a boat that they tried to take to Italy, after being detained at a Libyan Navy base in Tripoli on September 20, 2015. © 2015 Reuters France’s decision last week to withdraw its offer of six boats to the Libyan Coast Guard is good news, as Libya could have used this “gift” to subject even more migrants and refugees to serious abuses in Libya. In February, the French Defence Minister announced that France would transfer six “semi-rigid” speed boats to the Libyan Coast Guard, which would have been used to intercept people fleeing Libya. The announcement, which came even though…

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