Italian NGO Mediterranea has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi for allegedly violating the Geneva Conventions on refugees, the charity told AFP Friday.
Piantedosi, who has led far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's efforts to prevent migrant boat arrivals, made a post on X on Thursday which the rescue charity said proved he was breaking international law.
"A total of 16,220 migrants bound for European shores have been intercepted at sea and returned safely to Libya since January," Piantedosi wrote.
The figure "testifies to the effectiveness of Italy's collaboration with migrants' countries of origin and transit in combating human traffickers and deaths at sea", he said.
But Mediterranea said returning people against their will to Libya was a crime, calling for "an independent investigation" by prosecutors at the ICC in the Hague.
"Libya is an 'unsafe place', as certified by the most authoritative international bodies and the United Nations," Mediterranea said in a statement.
Therefore, "collaborating in activities of deportation of refugees and displaced persons to that country violates the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the Hamburg Convention on sea rescue," it added.
War-torn Libya is regularly criticised for its handling of migrants, with rights groups alleging horrific treatment by smuggling gangs and inside state-run detention centres.
It is a key launchpad for migrants who are often fleeing conflict and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Since 2017, Rome and Tripoli have partnered on a controversial EU-endorsed deal which provides training and funding to the Libyan coastguard in order to stem migrant departures or return those already at sea to Libya.
Human rights groups say those forcibly returned are placed in detention centres.
Mediterranea said Piantedosi had committed a "serious crime" against "16,220 human beings, whose fate neither he nor anyone else can know after they fell back into the hands of their jailers".
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