Spain will be able to relocate migrants to other EU countries, BNR reported. The country is one of the four members of the community with the most intense migratory pressure.
In addition to Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus will be entitled next year to access the common solidarity fund created under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will enter into force in mid-2026, the European Commission announced. This will allow the Spanish authorities to request either the relocation of some asylum seekers to other EU countries or financial compensation if a member state refuses to accept its quota.
The mechanism, which aims to redistribute at least 30,000 asylum seekers per year, will be mandatory. Various options for compensation from other member states are envisaged: they could agree to take some of the applicants on their territory or pay financial compensation. Spain ended 2024 with a record number of illegal immigrants arriving in the country. More than 63,000 people have entered without the necessary documents.
At a UN meeting last night, Libya was urged to close detention centers on its territory, where rights groups say migrants and refugees have been tortured and killed, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
A number of countries, including Britain, Spain, Norway and Sierra Leone, expressed concern at the meeting in Geneva about the treatment of migrants in Libya - a main transit route for Africans fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe.
Some of them have been held in warehouses by traffickers, where they have been subjected to violence and extortion, according to a Dutch court case.
Norway's permanent representative Tormod Endresen called for the protection of vulnerable migrants and an end to arbitrary detentions. Britain’s human rights envoy, Eleanor Sanders, echoed that sentiment and called for unfettered access by the United Nations and other groups to mass graves. Some bodies of migrants found in mass graves earlier this year had gunshot wounds, the UN agency said.
In an open letter to Libyan authorities published alongside the UN review, rights groups called for reforms, saying armed groups were operating with impunity, obstructing the courts and committing widespread abuses.
Eltaher Salem M. Elbaur, acting minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation in Libya’s UN-backed government based in the capital Tripoli, said migrants were a heavy burden on the divided country.
“I am not here to paint a perfect picture of the human rights situation in my country. On the contrary, I came here to reiterate the great efforts we have made to ensure that these rights are respected despite the challenges that are known to all during this very delicate transition period," he said.
He cited as examples his country's acceptance of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in Libya and the creation of a new joint committee to deal with detention centres.
The Libya review is part of a process by which governments and human rights groups scrutinise the records of all 193 UN member states every few years and recommend improvements.