REFUGEES,
DOSSIER LIBYA
Harassment, ill-treatment, torture, cruel suppression
of all forms of protest. Kills even when cold. Girls and young women raped,
beaten, humiliated before the eyes of their husbands or partners. Forced labour
and systematic beatings for those who rebel. Insufficiency, or even lack of
food and water as well as for drinking. Pregnant mothers need of care and
control, left to themselves. Wounded and sick without any form of medical care.
Do not escape this hell even children: 6, 8, 10, 12 years. But even very small:
of one or two years or even a few months. And, for everyone, no prospect that
the nightmare will end: at best, they expect a deportation across the border in
the desert, or return to the governments of the countries from which these
desperate people have fled, with eyes the dream of freedom and a dignified
life.
And 'what is happening in Libya in prisons and
detention centres where they are herded thousands of migrants, refugees and
asylum seekers. People who would never have been arrested and cross the door of
a prison, "guilty" only to have sought refuge from persecution and
famine. It happens in almost absolute silence of the international community.
The indifference of Western governments. Indifference "hairy", which
often hides a real complicity, because this hell created by the policy of many
European countries on migration: the "armor" of the borders in the
face to those who would be entitled to asylum, for example. Not to mention the
indiscriminate expulsions at sea, a practice that never really ended despite
the harsh sentence passed on February 22 by the European Court against Italy,
in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention on Human Rights, to the
degrading treatment and torture.
The
era of Gaddafi
The roots of this tragedy back to the times of the
dictatorship of Gaddafi. In particular, when I started the agreements with
Gaddafi for control of tens of thousands of refugees arrived in Libya from the
Horn of Africa and the sub-Saharan region, driven by wars, persecution, famine.
And 'at that time - we are in 2009 - that is embodied in particular the
agreement between Italy and Libya, which opened its doors to the decision to
stop, by any means, attempts to embark migrants to Europe, challenging the fate
at sea after paying a high price for a seat on boat wreck, "carts"
good only for demolition. But instead of hitting the criminal traffickers who
exploit the need and desperation of thousands of human beings, have begun raids
and mass arrests of its refugees. And for those who still managed to get on one
of those "carts", expulsions at sea. No matter: without bothering to
identify the desperate intercepted in the Mediterranean and whether they were
entitled to be accepted as refugees and political exiles. All men, women,
pregnant girls, children of all ages. People, that is, that they should be
helped and made to enter in Italy and in Europe on the basis of international
conventions signed by the vast majority of Western governments and often also
based on the constitutional rules of the states that those people were trying
to achieve. It 's the case of Italy, for example, as stated in the third
paragraph of article ten of the Republican Constitution.
The drama of the 63 Somali and Eritrean refugees that
between the months of March and April
2011 were abandoned by all for 15 days on a raft adrift in the Strait of Sicily
and condemned to die of thirst and starvation, stems from this: from this
policy choice is totally closed. The tragedy (which cost Italy a second international
condemnation, this time by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg) has come to
light because 9 of the 72 young people who were on board the boat were
miraculously saved. But are dozens of similar tragedies that you consume no
echo each month in the Mediterranean, as evidenced by the "death
toll": about 1,500 per year, according to the latest findings of the
Agency (UNHCR) and the Italian Centre for refugees.
It was expected this outlet, hundreds, thousands of
deaths and mass arrests. It was predictable at the same time which is delegated
to the problem emigration to a country, Libya, which has never signed the
Geneva Convention of 1951 on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. The
direct consequence of this choice could not be the tragedy that is taking place
for many years and continues to grow. A tragedy waiting to happen for the fate
of thousands of desperate ended up in police raids in Libya. Because everyone
knew and know what are the conditions of life - if life can be defined - those
who have the misfortune to enter a prison or a detention centre in Libya. Of
this fact is: prisons and detention centres. Lager and shelters as you attempt
to have us believe.
Revolt
against Gaddafi: the effects on refugees
The uprising against Gaddafi has aggravated the
situation further. The refugees from the Horn of Africa or in sub-Saharan
Africa, arrived in Libya as a step towards Europe or maybe just looking for a
job, have been considered in mass by the rebels as military mercenaries in the
pay of the Rais. Against them, even against women and children, has unleashed a
relentless manhunt that led to arrests, beatings, summary executions,
lynching’s. Only the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tripoli has assisted and
protected 2,500. With the exodus of all immigrants and foreign workers from the
country, when the revolt has become a civil war, even Eritreans, Ethiopians,
Somalis, Sudanese, Malians tried to escape. Many arrived in Tunisia, luckily
passing the border. Others have tempted fate by sea, focusing on Lampedusa and
Sicily. And many died during the crossing.
The "hunt black" is not ended even after the
fall of Gaddafi and the victory of the revolution. Indeed, in Tripoli, Benghazi
and other major cities, it is often intensified and continues even today. As
reported by some news reports, as well as indiscriminate accusation against all
the "blacks" in Libya to be non-immigrant workers but former
mercenaries of Gaddafi in disguise, this persecution by the revolutionary
militias would be fuelled by racist motives and Xenophobia: Arabs against
Africans, Islamic fundamentalists against Christians.
The
situation today
Today, after the stabilization of the political
situation, the elections and the new government, hell continues. The new Libya,
which has rebelled against the dictatorship of Gaddafi and was aided in the
revolt by the grand coalition military NATO, led by France, the United Kingdom
and the United States of America, in the name of democracy and human rights, it
does not appear that much different from the previous one, swept away by the
revolution.
New international treaties. Last February was renewed
the treaty of friendship and cooperation between Italy and Libya. This is a
general agreement, which essentially corresponds to the one signed in 2009 by
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and
Colonel Gaddafi. For the management
of specific problems at the time of signature has been established to study and
get special bilateral agreements. To control the migration agreement was signed
by Interior Minister Anna Maria
Cancellieri and the Libyan Fawzi Al
Taher Abdulali April 3 last year.
In many quarters, already on the eve of the renewal of
the General Treaty, in February, Italy authoritative voices were raised to ask
the Prime Minister Mario Monti not
to sign without expecting first revolutionary government, as an indispensable
condition, the guarantee of respect for human rights and acceptance of the
Geneva Convention of 1951, with the possibility of checks and constant, even in
detention centres, by international commissions UN and European humanitarian
organizations. Particularly lively and determined the position taken by Angelo
Del Boca, the Italian historian most experienced of African issues and, in
particular, the former Italian colonies. All appeals have fallen on deaf ears,
however: Monti signed without
guarantees. The same happened on the occasion of the signing of emigration, two
months later. In fact, the exact content of the April remained in practice
"secret": the Italian Parliament has discussed this and it was
possible to know the essential terms only after a strong campaign by Amnesty
International and thanks to the tenacity of some journalists . They found that
the control of migration to Italy has basically confirmed lines of the earlier
cartel, that strongly supported by the then Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a
member of the Northern League, strongly condemned by the European Court of
human rights.
Scarce or absent reactions of "politics"
after these revelations, both in Italy and in Libya. However, Amnesty
International has launched a campaign in national and European level to ask the
government the unilateral withdrawal of the Monti-Chancellors Abdulali, collecting thousands of signatures.
Rejections at sea. Have not stopped the indiscriminate
expulsions at sea. The last known incident dates back to June 29. An old
fishing boat was intercepted in international waters while attempting to reach
Sicily. On board were 76, almost all young and Eritrean asylum seekers, women
and children. Military ships have conducted all on an oil rig in Libyan waters,
where the whole group of migrants has been taken over by the border police, led
to the port of Tripoli and transferred to the detention centre Sibrata Mentega Delilah. According to
the refugees, the operation was conducted jointly by Libyan and Italian naval
units: they say they know this because the Libyan and Italian flags were waving
at the stern of the ship to the transaction.
Prisons. In prisons migrants, refugees and asylum
seekers continue to die. It does not stop the "search black" that
continues to fill: systematic arrests in the south of the country of young
people who have just crossed the border, raids in major cities and on the
coast, rounding up by departments of fundamentalist militants, who have never
laid down their arms after the fall and death of Gaddafi. More than twenty
detention centres currently in operation, ranging from old prisons of the
regime, to areas of organized surveillance at military camps and barracks, to
structures that should be centres but they work in reality as prisons in all
respects. Through complaints and testimonies of prisoners, refugees, aid
workers, journalists, Habeshia the
agency has developed a dossier that, even in part, provides data and information
on the general reality very eloquent.
The report covers three of the twenty detention
centres in Libya: Benghazi, Homs and
Twaisha (Tripoli). Very important, also, the news put together based on
various complaints received in the days or a few months ago on Sibrata Mentega Delila, Kufra, Gianfuda,
Mishrata, Zawya and Sharimetar.
Benghazi.
About four hundred prisoners. This center, located in
Medina Riyada, near the stadium, is managed by the theoretically "Red
Crescent", but in fact command the armed militia of the revolution,
claiming jihaidisti: come when they want and have the prisoners to their
liking. "Humanitarian workers that are sometimes - said one of the
detainees - can not do anything about registering our names, and we count it.
Then everything is in the hands of the guards. " Almost all places of
detention are made from old container, where prisoners are crammed for almost
the whole day, under a blazing sun, without being able to get out. The food,
very little more than a few times does not. Completely lacking medical
services, including minimum: a young, injured in January in Kufra, in the last
three months has not received any cure although it has developed a serious
infection, there are pregnant women left to themselves and two children were
born in a container, without any assistance.
Several women were raped: overcoming the resistance to
the torturers have hit several times with a stun gun, a system of punishment
increasingly popular with prisoners. At least 140 men were taken away to work as
slaves or in the service of the military (often used to load and unload
ammunition) or at farms and businesses to people close to Islamic
fundamentalist groups. The last "withdrawal" was forced to October 2:
15 detainees were taken to their cells and escorted off the field. It is not
known what happened to. Even the younger kids under age, do not escape the
beatings and torture. According to witnesses, on the contrary, the militia
would have invented a 'game' terrible right on the skin of these kids, a sort
of shooting with human targets. Would avoid hit but even so, if true, is a form
of torture awful. For pure sadistic fun. How did the SS concentration camps
with Jewish children.
The latest news also speak of discrimination and
religious persecution. The militia force everyone to pray according to the
Islamic faith. During the period of Ramadan have forced the Christians to
observe fasting as Muslims. Those who refused were beaten up. Islamic law
applies to all: any Christian symbols or effigies of saints, etc.. are
prohibited, women have been torn the crosses' necks, who has a tattoo traced to
the Christianity he must keep hidden or is severely beaten. Women must cover up
and wear a veil. Many families were divided because, not having with him
documents proving the marriage, the principle that men and women can not be
together: it may happen so that husband and wife end up in a different prison,
no longer have news of each other . Men who try to defend their women are
inflicted terrible tortures. One of the most frequent is the fake drowning: the
victim is dipped his head under water almost to choke her and pulled out at the
last minute. For several times. The lashes as punishment is daily practice. And
one of the "entertainment" favorite of the guards, after this
torture, is to roll the victims in the mud, as a sign of extreme humiliation.
Last contact date 07.10.12 at 15.00pm, update me about
the critical situation, the refugees for three days who do not receive food,
the situation is getting worse, it seems that some UNHCR staff members who went
to the detention centre have said "UNHCR, recognize as refugees or asylum
seekers, and what we are doing for you just an act of humanity, in the next
three days you must leave this place, we give you a cash contribution."
but the military has threatened to refugees saying that no one try to the ski
field, otherwise you will be killed. In between these two positions the refugee
life is seriously endangered. More than someone trying to escape to avoid these
harassment. There can hardly anyone. Almost all those who are caught trying to
leave this hell and being caught in the following days, were killed: no one
asks the guards and the police account of these murders.
Homs.
About 570 prisoners, including 200 Eritreans (one hundred men and 30 women) and
the other from Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mali, Sudan. The latest women, 28 in
all, of various nationalities, were recorded on October 3, after being locked
in the days before in several places: the same night as they were beaten badly
simply because they had asked for a bit 'of water to drink. Then, during the
night, the guards have harassed a boy, one of the militiamen he woke up at two,
bringing them out from the dormitory where he was sleeping. Just enough time to
cross the threshold and jumped on him all at once, shouting that he was trying
to escape and pounding in blood did not stop even when he lost consciousness.
An unprovoked massacre, by pure, sadistic "fun".
Here they are numerous reports that the Libyan soldiers
are forcing the prisoners to be registered refugees in the embassies of their
countries of origin. It 's the prelude to expulsion: the return to the State
vessava them to the point of forcing them to flee. Opponents are
"convinced" by dint of violence and torture. This is clearly a
procedure in contrast to any international law. Is openly violated, in
particular, the African Union Convention that protects the rights of refugees
and asylum seekers. Women who are ill or pregnant, in need of medical checks, denied
any kind of assistance. Any hint of protest is punished. Even in death, as
happened in four young: three Eritreans and a Somali. Do not miss the
gratuitous violence: an Eritrean boy was struck cold with a knife by the
military while he was sleeping, perhaps for "punishment" or as a
warning to others. This series of abuses against women staged a hunger strike.
The protest was repressed wildly. The military in particular if they are taken
with a guy, as a scapegoat first barrel was beaten and then shot him without
any reason. Seeing that horrible scene, many women, terrified, began to scream.
The military, to reduce them to silence, they beat them and fired several shots
fired.
Multiply discrimination on religious grounds and those
who claim that all prisoners, even if the majority of the Coptic religion,
observe the precepts of Islam.
Twaisha:
It 'a prison for common criminals on the outskirts of Tripoli, where for years
it also works a large section reserved for foreigners without documents. And
'one of the most crowded detention centres: the refugees are currently more
than 600 prisoners. You are locked up, to be precise, 550 men (500 Somalis and
Eritreans fifty) and sixty women: 50 Somali and Eritrean ten. Three of the
young Eritrean are pregnant: one is the eighth month. Everyone, including
pregnant women, suffer from lack of food and water. Many have been there for
over six months, subject to constant abuse. Who tried to escape and was taken,
suffered heavy beatings by the military guard: one lost an eye to the beatings,
others complain permanent physical disability. Punishment and torture with
electric shocks are on the agenda. Particularly against the Eritreans, many of
which are imposed by force to declare their true nationality but to be migrants
from one of the countries in West Africa. Unknown why this request.
Sibrata
Mentega Delilah: It 'a big detention centre recently completed on the
outskirts of Tripoli. Prisoners are more than 350, including 76 refugees
intercepted in international waters in the Strait of Sicily, June 29, brought
to power on an oil rig in Libyan territorial waters and then delivered to the
border police. About 50 of the 350 detainees are women. With them, even some
small children, two of which, one is only 18 months and is in urgent need of
medical care.
Abuse and violence are the norm everyday. On July 21,
a 18 year old girl was shot at by police during a protest. Wounded in the
abdomen, was hospitalized in very serious condition. The officers were
presented as an ex-mercenary Gaddafi, the protagonist of a riot. It is actually
an Eritrean refugee who, along with other young prisoners, hungry and desperate
as he asked only to drink and eat. And a more humane: it was two days ago that
they did not receive food or water. Another prisoner, a nineteen year old, was
beaten with an iron bar in his head: the companions reported that the blows
caused a massive bleeding from an ear.
Heavy abuse also suffered a number of women, one in an
advanced state of pregnancy: frightened by the gunfire and blood began to cry
and thrash about and the military, to reduce them to silence, hurled at them
all, including some sturdy chairs metal.
All 350 prisoners are asylum seekers. There is no
valid reason, therefore, to keep them in prison. For more in a state of daily
harassment and violence. But even for them, as in other prisons, are made heavy
pressure to agree to be registered with the embassies of the countries of
origin, as a prelude to expulsion and repatriation. Not taken into account that
for many, especially the Eritrean, the forced return to their homeland is
equivalent to a sentence of many years in prison or even the death penalty,
because in Eritrea illegal expatriation is a crime equivalent to desertion,
especially for those of military age. Age that lasts up to 50 years and passes.
More frequent even persecution of religious character.
Almost none of those 350 refugees are Muslim but, as reported more than anyone,
during Ramadan were forced to fast and often at sunset, finished hours of abstinence,
water and food were distributed only to Muslims. Still must comply with the
practices of Islam and are under pressure to convert.
Kufra:
It 'a detention centre located in the extreme south, the city was established
around the oasis in the Sahara desert, the first one you meet coming from the
southern border and reference point for the police to all migrants and refugees
who have crossed surprised after the border. Set within a large military base
with a major weapons depot, according to the latest news, there are herded
hundreds of young men and women, kept in conditions almost of slavery, forced
labour under the threat of gun, often without food or water, at the mercy of
the soldiers who guard the camp. In the days of the civil war are often found
at the centre of fierce fighting between the two sides, forced by militants to
carry out work for them even under the bombs and the fire of musketry.
Among the witnesses to this situation there are a
dozen boys, all Eritreans, who managed to get in touch by telephone with the agency Habeshia to Rome to ask for
help. Their story is emblematic of the fate of thousands of other refugees.
Fled from Eritrea, defying the prison and the firing of border guards, after
being repaired in Ethiopia and Sudan, have managed to reach Libya with an
adventurous journey in the Sahara. Shortly after crossing the border of the
Fezzan, they were intercepted by a patrol of militiamen near Mesrué, not far away from Kufra. Bring all under arrest in
command of the area, 16 were transferred to the detention centre in Kufra. Of the other four - three women
and a teenager - were to Mesrué,
there was no longer news. In Kufra
the 16 Eritrean refugees have found other prisoners taken recently, thirty, all
Somalis, also caught in the Libyan desert, just this side of the border. All
were forced to work for the soldiers of the base. And many have been
blackmailed, some soldiers asked them a bounty of $ 800 to take them to a safer
place. An application that makes you think of a real traffic based on fear, as
in the days of Gaddafi. Who can pay does not hesitate to give in to extortion.
The others are at the mercy of captors.
Gianfuda:
About 600 inmates are more than 100 Eritreans, Ethiopians 80, 150 Somalis, the
other from Sudan and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe.
Food and water are distributed only every 4 or 5 days. Somalis, Eritreans and
Ethiopians are openly discriminated against on religious grounds. For their
rations are becoming increasingly scarce than others, do not get soap and
detergents for personal hygiene, are punished and beaten continuously without a
real reason: just some excuse or simply "whim" of the captors. In
early October, four boys Eritreans were massacred beatings, kicks and punches,
with the false accusation that he had tried to escape. The next day, the same
treatment was reserved for three Somalis.
Mishrata.
About 250 prisoners, almost all migrants from West Africa. The Eritreans are
only 5, but two of them were seriously injured by the constant beatings
suffered by the guards ever since I arrived, to between 15 and 20 September:
one has a head injury, the other a broken arm. They never received any medical
care. On the contrary, continue to be subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Zawya.
The prisoners are nearly 500, of which 65 Eritrean and 23 Somalis. Upon
entering the centre, the guards took each of them all the money he had.
Formally it would be a seizure, it is actually a real theft, followed by
continuous bullying, especially against those who try to protest. The general
living conditions are similar to those of the other fields: little food, little
water and often denied as a punishment or a free will, overcrowding in housing,
no medical care. A young man has a broken foot, but received no treatment of
any kind.
Sharimetar:
Located in the suburbs of Tripoli, this detention centre is home to about a
hundred of migrants and refugees: 35 Somalis and 10 Eritreans are the victims
"favourite" of daily abuse by the military guard. The food ration is
limited to a loaf of bread and a bit 'of water every 48 hours. Nothing more.
Beatings and punishments, however, come every day, especially for those who
dare to mention just a protest. For the sick and injured is not any form of
medical care.
Other
witnesses.
The confirmation of these complaints and how it
stifled and ignored the hell that we live in prisons and detention centres in
Libya is also a series of testimonies, gathered by telephone and announced by
the Integra Foundation / Action, have been published by the newspaper La
Repubblica last July. How to Debesay, a young Eritrean arrested in Benghazi
and, along with other young people, was looking for a ferry to Italy, where he
fled his mother. "Here in prison - he said - we are desperate, frustrated.
We tried to go all the way, but we did not succeed, not even paying the guards.
Escape is not possible: if you try to escape you get punished, beaten on the
soles of the feet, excruciating pain. In a cell of 30 square meters are huddled
in more than 60, we sleep on the ground, there are branded but only dirty
mattresses or mats on the floor. The options, most of the times, is only dry
bread and water. If you're sick, there are doctors and medicine: your fate is
abandonment and death. "
Equally dramatic testimony of Mogos, a seventeen
originally from Asmara, escaped from a training camp Eritrean army and ended up
in prison Gianfuda. "We travelled for 12 days in the desert. There were
50, piled on a truck. Near the sea, to Tripoli, when it seemed done, the Libyan
soldiers took me along to the guys who were with me. The hardest thing is not
to see the future, a way out of this endless journey. The few that do come out
of prison to work "Some detainees - said in fact the Integra Foundation /
Action - are bought by wealthy Libyans as a labor force for their own
businesses or farms, but this" luck "is reserved for those who have
the passport, immediately seized when the engagement is to avoid any temptation
to escape. "We do not have Eritrean passports - added Mogos - and so we
can not even go out to work as slaves. For us there is no solution. No future.
At age 17, I'm stuck here in hell. " Anwar is an Ethiopian Oromo, the
southern region of the country where there is a strong opposition to the
central government in Addis Ababa: "I was taken out of prison Gianfuda for
nearly a month, bought me a Libyan who needed labour. Then, paying, I was able
to continue their journey to the sea ... I was the first prisoner to Kufra and
then Gianfuda. E 'was terrible beating us regularly and on time every night, we
had no food, no medicine or doctors. In Libya there are no rights. "
Similar stories have been told by many others. As
Aroon and Meron, Eritreans, or Salua, Somalia. Desperate cries from hell. But
no one seems to want to listen. Just as is the case for over two years for the
parallel tragedy of refugees in the Sinai slaves, hundreds, thousands of young
Eritreans, Somalis, Ethiopians, captured by marauding Bedouins while trying to
cross the border with Israel and kept chained in prisons improvised container
buried in the desert, until he is paid a ransom of 30-35 thousand dollars. With
the constant threat of being killed, because who is not able to pay for freedom
is sacrificed for organ trafficking that feeds the market for illegal
transplants. A real, serious, unspoken international humanitarian emergency.
The "case Libya" could become a disaster as devastating.
Fr. Mussie Zerai
Fribourg, 12 October
2012
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