Migrants smuggling and operation Sophia: Could the responsibility to protect return to Libya?

Abstract

Libyan internal conflict after Gaddafi’s fall makes it impossible to control over its southern land borders and the coastal ones in the north of the country. This lack of control facilitates irregular migrations from sub-Saharan Africa to Libya and from there to the EU, through the southern central Mediterranean. In order to stop migrants smuggling, the EU Council adopted Decision (CFSP) 2015/778 which is developing the operation Sophia. This operation, however, is jammed in a phase that prevents it from achieving its objectives due to the absence of Libya’s consent or UN Security Council resolution allowing its extension to the following phases. To unlock it, this paper suggests to restore the already forgotten principle of the responsibility to protect which, backed by the theory of UN Security Council retroactive authorizations, would allow the operation to continue within the international legal framework.