Italy's policy to intercept migrants at sea, sending them back indiscriminately to Libya, violates international law, dpa quoted a report from the Council of Europe as stating today. The so-called "push back" policy, launched in May 2009, has come under repeated criticism from human rights groups and the United Nations, but has so far escaped official sanctioning from the European Union. Italy's centre-right government defends it as a centre-piece of its strategy to stem the flow immigration from Africa. But according to the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), the policy "violates the principle of non-refoulement," a cornerstone of the 1951 Geneva Convention which prevents states from sending migrants back to places where they may face ill-treatment. It also said Italian officials failed to offer intercepted migrants "appropriate opportunity or facilities to seek international protection." It also said that "no migrant, one transferred onto an Italian ship, expressed his/her intention to apply for asylum."
