The United Nations refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration have welcomed "consensus" among European nations that action must be taken to protect refugees in war-torn Libya and in the Mediterranean, Unhcr and IOM said in a joint statement late Monday.
"Today’s discussions in Paris with European states on addressing the situation on the Mediterranean Sea, and preventing loss of life in Libya, are welcome and much-needed," Unchr chief Filippo Grandi and Iom head Antonio Vitorino said in the statement issued after a meeting of European foreign and interior ministers.
The deadly three-and-half-month-old conflict Libya's capital Tripoli between eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar's force and militias allied to the UN-backed government has made the situation "critical" and "more desperate than ever" for migrants, said the statement.
"We welcome the consensus at today’s meeting on a need to end the arbitrary detention of refugees and migrants in Libya," the statement went on.
The statement called for the "orderly" and safe release of several thousand migrants and refugees being detained in facilities in Libya, and independent monitoring and unfettered, regular access for humanitarian agencies.
"In light of the risks of abuse, maltreatment or death, no one should be returned to detention centres in Libya after being intercepted or rescued at sea," the statement underlined.
A European Union search and rescue operation such as its suspended Sophia naval mission is needed to save migrants in the Mediterranean, the statement said.
"The status quo, where search and rescue operations are often left to NGO or commercial vessels, cannot continue."
Charity rescue ships play a crucial role - a fact that needs to be acknowledged - and should not be "criminalised" or "stigmatised" for saving migrants at sea, the statement argued.
"Commercial vessels, which are increasingly being relied upon to conduct rescue operations, must not be requested to transfer rescued people to the Libyan coastguard, nor directed to disembark them in Libya, which is not a port of safety," the statement said.
The statement lauded "promising" discussions at the Paris meeting "on establishing a temporary, predictable arrangement for disembarking people after they have been rescued at sea, and sharing responsibility amongst States for hosting them afterwards".
"We encourage these talks to progress further," the statement went on.
The UN agency chiefs urges European states to work with the world body to increase evacuations of refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya and their resettlement and welcomed "expressions of support in this regard" made at the Paris meeting.
Greater efforts are also needed to address the root causes of migration in the region including numerous unresolved conflicts that continue in North and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as "development challenges", the statement noted.
"Brokering a lasting peace in Libya must be the overriding priority. The international community should use any leverage it has to bring the warring parties together in dialogue, and establish a political solution that restores stability and security," the statement concluded.
At least 44 migrants have been killed and 130 severely injured in the military escalation in Tripoli, which has claimed 1,093 lives and displaced over 100,000 people since it began in early April, according to the UN.
