On 17 September, the EU Ambassador to Libya Nicola Orlando held a meeting with Mohammed Marhani, in his capacity as technical head of the Supreme Committee for Migration, together with representatives of the Ministries of Interior, Defense, and Foreign Affairs, ahead of the upcoming meeting of the EU-Libya Technical Mission on Rights-Based Migration and Border Management.
During the meetings, they reviewed progress and identified opportunities for further cooperation, particularly on effective border management, voluntary returns of migrants, and engagement with the embassies of countries of origin, as well as with EU-supported UN agencies and NGOs. Orlando reportedly raised the recent search and rescue incidents, and the parties ‘agreed on the need to strengthen mechanisms for monitoring human rights compliance and for investigating incidents to ensure accurate reporting and accountability.’
On 21 September, Orlando, met with a number of international bodies tackling migration in Libya, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Libya and IOM Libya. The meeting, which Orlando called ‘productive’, focused on a number of initiatives, including: scaling up voluntary returns, deepening dialogue with Libyan authorities across the country, strengthening capacity at borders and on routes, combating human smuggling, and assisting Libyan communities affected by the Sudan crisis.