Episode 19: The injustices caused by the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding

This month marked the five-year anniversary of the EU-sponsored agreement between Italy and Libya. The deal led to millions of Euros bing spent on the so-called Libyan Coastguard and thousands of people being pushed back into Libya's condemned detention centres.  In today's episode, Italian journalist Lorenzo D'Agostino talks to us about some of the lesser known consequences of that deal, like how it made Libya's southern desert border more deadly and how the Italian anti-mafia squad has prosecuted people for steering their boats across the Mediterranean.  He also talks about how Europe's neocolonialist policies in Africa are driving the crisis and the journalistic problem of referring to people as refugees and migrants.   --- Show notes --- You can find more of Lorenzo's journalism here: lorenzodagostino.com And you can find him on Twitter here: @lorenzodago The three stories Lorenzo wrote that we talked about in this episode can be found below: Italy's Failed Migration Fix Has Led to Chaos in Libya: bit.ly/3sCpdDZ Friends of the Traffickers: Italy's Anti-Mafia Directorate and the 'dirty campaign' to criminalise migration: bit.ly/3Js1y02 Inside Italy's show trial against Libyan 'boat drivers': bit.ly/34E5lZh You can find out more about the El Hiblu 3, here: bit.ly/3GLsPsr  Here you can read Amnesty International's condemnation of the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding: bit.ly/34W3q1K Don't know who Open Arms or Alarm Phone are? Check out episode 13 for our interview with Open Arm's head of operations Albert Mayordomo, and episodes 3 and 5 with Alarm Phone activists Marie and Deanna.  Lorenzo mentions Antonio Gramsci and his theory of Cultural Hegemony in this interview. I think this video is a good place to start if you'd like to know more about the Italian Marxist and cultural hegemony: bit.ly/3HPfZe6  Dan O'Mahey is the UK's so-called Clandestine Channel Threat Commander. Here's an interesting read questioning what he is actually doing: bit.ly/3GGJ2Pr  Finally, you should definitely follow Refugees In Libya on Twitter is you haven't already: @RefugeesinLibya Get in touch: @FleetCivil [email protected] Support:  patreon.com/civilfleet ko-fi.com/civilfleet