ABSTRACT
Since the migration crisis of 2015, EU’s activism towards Libya has been pronounced, mainly directed at stabilization and at the reduction of irregular arrivals in the European Union (EU). After a phase in which Italy, backed up politically and financially by the EU, took the lead in approaching Libya, bringing cooperation to a peak in 2017, the EU’s initiative started to slip away due to political issues within and among the Member States. Parallelly, a new activism emerged among regional and global powers which began to intrude into the mess caused by years of ungovernability. This chapter tries to uncover which priorities of justice (if any) have been advanced in the field of migration governance in the case of Libya, examining not only the period of most intense contact with the country (2016–2017) but mainly the period following this, when the EU’s initiative was either replaced or repeatedly obstructed by its own and others’ actions. Weighting the advancement of understandings of justice as non-domination, impartiality and mutual recognition allow gauging the Union’s priorities on migration governance with third countries.
