The project

The Database of Illegal Pushbacks in the Central Mediterranean is a documentation project that aims to make publicly available the vast amount of data collected over the years by activists who, in various capacities, support migrants who have been victims of serious violations of their fundamental rights.

Beyond their intrinsic documentary value, this data forms the basis for the fact-finding work carried out since 2019 by the Josi and Loni Project (JLP). Over the years, more than 600 victims have been traced and interviewed.

Thanks to the work of the lawyers from Sciabaca & Oruka (ASGI), for some cases of illegal pushbacks—properly reconstructed and documented—it has been possible to initiate civil proceedings, resulting in several convictions and the effective recognition of the migrants’ rights.

However, in order to curb this phenomenon, it is not enough to bring some of the direct perpetrators to justice. These injustices and acts of violence are a direct consequence of Italian and European migration policies, which are increasingly geared towards building a repressive legal and administrative system designed to systematically deny fundamental rights to vulnerable groups such as asylum seekers. This is achieved through the externalization of border controls. Numerous independent bodies have for years denounced how these policies—and the international agreements that underpin them—fuel human trafficking, providing traffickers not only with political legitimacy but also with significant financial resources.

OpenRights, through this project carried out in collaboration with JLP, aims to document this reality as thoroughly as possible, in order to highlight the need for—and the urgency of—a radical rethinking of Italy’s and the European Union’s migration policies.

The Database of Illegal Pushbacks in the Central Mediterranean is conceived as a large, free, and open-access online calendar that will collect documentation on around 1,000 cases of illegal pushbacks. These pushbacks have led to the deportation of tens of thousands of migrants to Libyan detention centers, exposing them to grave violations of their fundamental human rights.

Investigative Work

To prove these violations, it is necessary to gather evidence of the illegality of the pushback, trace the individuals who were pushed back, and reconstruct the events chronologically. This is done through photographic material, direct testimonies from the victims, aerial tracking data, and other public data gathered online, as well as through institutional Freedom of Information requests. All of this material is compiled into a case file.

For an example of a case reconstruction, follow this link.

Objectives of the Project

The overarching aim of the project is to contribute to the analysis of Italian and European migration policies from a human rights perspective, in order to enhance understanding of their outcomes and effects, and to identify and remove the factors that lead to serious and systematic violations of fundamental rights.

Specific objectives also include:

1. Facilitating the judicial verification of serious human rights violations committed against refugees, asylum seekers, and foreign nationals fleeing their countries of origin or transit in an attempt to reach European shores, and contributing to ensuring effective access to the right to international protection;
2. Documenting and preserving for history as detailed a record as possible of the systematic violations of international human rights law that occur along the migration routes toward Europe.

Another expected outcome is a significant increase in legal support that can be provided to victims of collective pushbacks, enabling them to assert their rights through the appropriate legal channels. This also means expanding collaborations with other law firms and legal networks.

Our Supporters

The project is funded thanks to the contributions of: