On April 7, 2020 Italy closed its ports for disembarkation and declared that, due to the pandemic, the country was not a safe place for rescue by foreign-flagged ships outside its search and rescue region. The measure seemed to target NGO ships that were often left at sea for days without instructions after rescue. When the transfer to Italy was authorized, the rescued people were quarantined on large ships, usually for two weeks, before being transferred ashore. Hundreds of refugees and migrants arrived independently, mostly on the island of Lampedusa, causing severe overcrowding in the local reception center. It was difficult for refugees and migrants on the island to adhere to the rules on physical distancing and the quarantine period was reset with each new arrival.

In October, an unaccompanied 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast died in a hospital in Palermo, after passing quarantine on a ship where doctors had requested early disembarkation due to his deteriorating health. He reportedly showed signs of torture suffered in Libya.

In December, 2020 parliament reformed the two security laws, known as "security decrees", passed in 2018 and 2019, which forbid NGOs Vessels to enter territorial waters and imposed heavy administrative penalties for them. The 2018 decre ealso abolished humanitarian protection thus denying regular status to about 37,000 people. The protection was restored with law 173/2020.

The authorities continues to penalize NGOs for their rescue activities at sea. The ships are inspected and seized and fines are repeatedly imposed.

There have been some positive developments for relief NGOs. In February, the Court of Cassation of Rome ruled the illegality of the arrest of the captain of the Sea Watch 3, Carola Rackete, in June 2019, after she entered the territorial waters despite the prohibition of the authorities. The court ruled that it was fulfilling its duty to rescue people at sea and that a rescue operation ends with disembarkation in a safe place.

Many Courts are stating that rescue at sea cannot be criminalised, it is an obligation and are not sentencing NGOs that refuse to take migrants back to Libya. In the meantime, in October, the trial against the former Minister of the Interior began in Catania. He is accused of unlawful deprivation of liberty of over 100 people rescued on the Italian coast guard ship Gregoretti in July 2019.

Cooperation with Libya on border control started on February 2, 2017 (Memorandum of Understanding) continues.

In January, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe asked Italy to suspend cooperation activities that resulted, directly or indirectly, in the return to Libya of people intercepted at sea. However, the 2017 Memorandum with Libya, in support of the collaboration between the two countries on border control, was automatically extended for another three years. Italy confirmed the support to the Libyan maritime authorities in July 2021 despite wide and strong protests of the people and the associations that denounced the responsibility of Italian authorities in the cycle of violence, exploitation and violation of human rights systematically endured by migrants and refugees (tortured, raped and killed) and called for a plan providing for the immediate evacuation of people held in Libyan detention centers and the extension of regular entry channels for migrant people and refugees."

The two organizations reiterate that no one should be returned to Libya after being rescued at sea. Under international maritime law, rescued individuals should be disembarked at a place of safety.

IOM and UNHCR staff are in Libya, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance. However, the agencies reiterate that the basic preconditions to ensure the safety and protection of rescued migrants and refugees post-disembarkation are lacking; therefore, Libya cannot be considered a safe place.

In the absence of predictable disembarkation mechanisms, maritime actors should not be obliged to return refugees and migrants to unsafe places. IOM and UNHCR call on States to coordinate so that merchant vessels rescuing people in distress are granted swift permission for disembarkation in a place of safety, to avoid lives being placed at risk.

The Libyan Coast Guard has returned more than 13,000 people to Libya this year, already surpassing the number of people intercepted or rescued and disembarked in all of 2020. Hundreds of others have perished at sea.

The continuing departures from Libya highlight the need for a predictable rescue and disembarkation mechanism along the Central Mediterranean route, with immediate effect and in full compliance with international human rights principles and standards.

Migrants and refugees disembarked in Libya often end up in appalling conditions where they may be exposed to abuse and extortion. Others go missing and are unaccounted for, raising fears that some may have been channeled into human trafficking networks.

IOM and UNHCR call for an end to arbitrary detention in Libya, through the establishment of a judicial review process, and advocate for alternatives to detention starting with the immediate release of the most vulnerable.