Advocates feel vindicated as Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled earlier this month that it is illegal to send refugees rescued from the Mediterranean Sea to an unsafe territory – in this case, Libya.

The case began last year after Italy and Libya automatically renewed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which began in 2017. Under the MoU, Italy funds and trains the Libyan Coast Guard in patrolling the Central Mediterranean despite evidence of systematic abuses against migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum, including modern slavery, which the U.N. has said may amount to crimes against humanity.

Matteo de Bellis, from Amnesty International, thinks the court was only making official what everyone, including the Italian authorities, already knew.

“The Italian coastguard and government have long known that returning migrants to Libya would be unlawful, because of the conditions there. Instead, they looked for ways around those restrictions, such as helping fund, equip and train the Libyan coastguard.”

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