The European Union has been accused of being complicit in the torture and abuse of migrants in Libya. Amnesty International claims that Libyan people smugglers are being paid not to send migrants to sea in flimsy rafts to be picked up by a European warship or an NGO vessel and taken to an asylum camp in Italy.

Indeed, the human rights organization says the Libyan Coastguard, which has been trained and equipped mainly by the Italians, is being paid to intercept migrant crafts.

What has outraged world opinion are the conditions in which migrants are kept in official and unofficial detention camps, the majority of them in the west of the country supposedly under the control of the UN-backed government of Faiez Serraj. Amnesty says there are 20,000 detainees but this omits those, largely from sub-Saharan Africa, who are “free’ in Libya trying to make their way to Europe. There has long been a population of migrants surviving in hovels and earning a living renting themselves out as day laborers.

In the capital Tripoli these unfortunates can be seen early in the morning at roundabouts and main intersections. They sometimes hold up the “tools” of their trade, paintbrushes, plastering trowels, shovels or brooms. They are hired by men who come with pick-up trucks and are normally paid a pittance. At the end of their day’s work, they may actually receive nothing. Crowded into their one-room shacks, they are frequently rousted by militiamen who pass for police in this increasingly lawless country. They are robbed, beaten and abused and sometimes seized for ransoms to be paid by their relatives back home. Any females among them can fear the worst at the hands of these thugs.

In the last four years, well over half a million migrants have found their way to Italy. Other EU countries have been reluctant to take some of these people. The convention is that migrants should seek asylum in the country where they first land. But Italy can barely cope with the influx. Fine words and offers of financial help from its fellow EU member states are not alleviating the problem. Hence the deal that Rome has cut with the Libyan people-smugglers, militias and coastguard, most of whom are accused of being in cahoots.

But while it is easy for Amnesty to condemn the Italians, it is much harder to find a workable solution. Yet there are steps that can and probably should be taken to stop this tidal wave of humanity. The most obvious is to separate genuine asylum-seekers - those whose lives are in danger in their own countries - from those who are purely economic migrants. There is much evidence that the great majority of those in Italian camps are simply in search of a better life than they had back home. To avoid being sent back, they generally destroy all their documentation. But a thorough-going investigation of each case, looking to language and the mobile phones which many seem to have and if necessary DNA testing, can reveal a migrant’s place of origin. Without a convincing asylum case, they should be sent home. This would allow Europe to emulate Germany and welcome those from war-torn countries, particularly Syria, that are in genuine need of shelter.