Italy - Libya: Rights of Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Italy - Libya:-

We are very concerned to learn in the news is reported by the media, the existence of an agreement which is aligned with the previous regime Ghedafi. If this news is true, Italy would make you an accomplice of the new Libyan regime in violation of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers who are now held in detention centers in areas exposed to dangers and wars.

For months, we receive reports of persons detained in degrading to human dignity, where he is denied even the sunlight, into imprisonment Ganfuda of Bengazi there are dozens of Eritrean and Somali refugees including many children in very poor condition. In Kufra, where dozens of refugees are exposed to dangers of attacks by rebel groups, held in the prison where these refugees is the same as the militants use as a store of weapons, so in case of attack these refugees have no escape. The stories of several refugees who have told us from the Kufra area where dozens of them are reduced to slaves forced to work without pay and abused by armed men, deprived of food and water. In front of this violence and violations of individual rights and violation of international conventions that protect the fundamental rights of persons, refugees and displaced persons.

Italy on what basis he made this agreement? What guarantees would receive from the "new" Libya? The government has often said that Monti interested in human rights, but if it makes agreements with countries that have never respected the rights and never have signed international conventions, such as the 1951 Geneva Convention for Rights of Refugees. Someone accuses demagoguery by saying that the humanitarian organizations that condemn human rights violations in Libya. There is a saying "in the belly of the rich no poor" people, even some institutional holding positions do not realize the seriousness or importance of their Celtic, which can damage or save lives. Any agreement in the dark of the Italian government with Libya, only on the basis of political and electoral calculations, increasing the suffering of refugees, exposing them to more speculation of human traffickers. The European Community is committed not to offer an alternative to people forced to leave their homelands because of wars, persecution or natural disasters.

Block the arrival of refugees, paying to the southern Mediterranean countries, without taking into account how high the price they are paying for refugees seeking protection in terms of human lives and deprivation of their fundamental rights, Europe makes you complicit in all atrocities, which are subjected every day thousands of sub-Saharan refugees.

Fr. Mussie Zerai