Libya: 1,200 refugees threatened with deportation. Silence about their rights trampled

Emilio Drudi


There are over 1,200 refugees and migrants who risk deportation from Libya to their countries of origin. At best, once returned to the government from which they fled, they expect a process for illegal immigration, but in reality, many years in prison or even death. Species in Eritrea, where the flight from the country is equivalent in practice to desertion from the army. And the Eritreans are many: 350 of those 1,200. The others are from Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Niger and Chad. They were all concentrated in two prisons in the south about 70 km distant from each other, and Barika Sebha, where they are detained foreigners classified as sick. And the disease seems to be the justification from Tripoli to the deportation order. It also discussed the Libyan television and radio. "We are forced to take this decision - it was said - because many of them are carriers of diseases and other problems." "This is an absurd and motivation clearly racially motivated" complaint don Mussie Zerai, the president of the agency Habeshia, which calls for the umpteenth time the mobilization of the international community on the infinite tragedy of refugees. In particular, for "if Libya", where the violence against "blacks" show a strong resurgence: "They continue at this time assaults and robberies against refugees. In Abu Salim, a district of Tripoli, hundreds of migrants must remain segregated in the house. They are afraid to go out, because there are militias raking the streets in search of 'blacks'. If someone comes up just to buy bread, is attacked, robbed and then deported to the south, toward the prison of Sheba. The police remain inert pretends not to see. Although these attacks arise from obvious racial or religious prejudices. It 's just that the real motive. "
Racism and oppression, then. Not health problems. Moreover, if indeed any of those refugees were sick, according to international conventions should be treated, not dismissed. Indeed, it would be one more reason to welcome and protect him. But Libya does not provide any medical assistance to migrants: those who even throws in its prisons. He cares only to discard it. Mature in this context, the forced repatriation of those desperate 1200. Indifference of all Western governments, knowing the risks to which these young people are exposed. And in the deafening silence of all political forces. In Italy as in Europe. Affects in particular, as regards Italy, the position of the Democratic Party, because of the guiding themes with which he inaugurated the campaign has placed just what rights. He spoke the same candidate for prime minister, Pierluigi Bersani, insisting on the right to be considered Italian in effect for boys children of immigrants born or raised in Italy. The correct statement, finally, that citizenship is not acquired in accordance with the principle of jus sanguinis racist but jus soli. How do you always in France, for example, where is everyone who is born citizen of the Republic, regardless of the family of origin.
It is a subject on which, later on, the same Bersani has insisted. Anyway, it inflames the political debate in the few days left to vote. But he had a cult following, so that we are appended, albeit with a much more nuanced argument, even Berlusconi. Positions of closure is only the League. The same attention, however, the Democratic Party does not seem to show it to those 1,200 migrants who are about to be delivered to a destination at least obscure and, more generally, for all the desperate blocked in Libya. Thousands of young men and women who have reached the country with the hope of finding any shipment to Europe. Especially those that always in the thousands, were intercepted by the Libyan police and are now living in confined places that the hypocrisy of the Italian Government called shelters but are authentic lager. Where there are no rights, only ill-treatment, rape, forced labor, extortion, rapes, torture. Death itself. Those young men are there largely thanks to our immigration policy. They are there for the indiscriminate expulsions at sea adopted in recent years and the stubbornness to want to hear their cry for help. They are there because Italy has entrusted the task of Libya gendarme of the Mediterranean, in order to eliminate or at least contain the flow of migration from North Africa to our shores. They are there, in the end, thanks to the infamous bilateral agreement signed by Berlusconi and Gaddafi, sponsors and in particular the then Interior Minister Roberto Maroni.
But all this does not seem to remember the Democratic Party. Perhaps because he has a lot to atone for in this affair, starting with the vote in Parliament, that agreement between Italy and Libya in two. The office of the foreign party apparently had expressed serious concerns and the same group in the House was largely oriented to no, but would intervene strong pressure from the top to align the will of the government. And in the end, all folded. On the skin of thousands of young people fleeing from hunger, persecution and war. You would be able to correct shooting Monti, the new prime minister. So much more than just a year ago, just for the rejections to Libya, Italy was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights. But no. Monti has renewed the covenant general friendship with the new Libyan government and the beginning of April, well after the sentence from Europe, the interior minister Anna Maria Cancellieri signed with his counterpart in Tripoli an agreement migration that follows almost step by step the one desired by Maroni. Semisecret agreement. In Parliament it was discussed. To reveal the content was Amnesty International, with a big campaign that ended with the presentation of a petition to the Minister Cancellieri European, full of tens of thousands of signatures to demand the withdrawal of bilateral agreements. The Democratic Party has remained silent. Indeed, by its own confidential information filtered by the Foreign Office, it emerged that would Stoppata a question to the Minister for Clerks to account for its actions. Also in relation to repeated complaints from various international organizations on violence and abuses against migrants by Libyan police and the inhuman conditions of life in the 22 detention camps that Tripoli has reserved for foreigners caught in its territory.
Not enough. Excellent opportunity to discuss these issues finally came when in December, the day after the primary, Pierluigi Bersani has made an official visit to Libya, almost as a future prime minister. And instead, if it has not been mentioned. So many words on the importance of political and economic relations between Italy and the Government of after Gaddafi, but not a breath on the human rights of refugees and migrants as a prerequisite for any kind of cooperation. Pretending to forget that Tripoli has not signed the Geneva Convention of 1951 on the protection of refugees. Yet the European Union, through the commission for human rights and for internal affairs, just two months before he had acquired a dossier on the dire situation in Libya which are condemned immigrants and asylum seekers: a complaint about prison conditions presented unequivocal by Don Mussie Zerai, called a hearing officer in Brussels.

Now comes another emergency. In these days don Zerai has collected new information to update the report on prisons, finding ample confirmation that the situation continues to deteriorate. And, above all exploded the case of the 1,200 refugees and migrants at risk of forced deportation. Even this emergency has been reported to the secretariat of the National Democratic Party, through some candidates for the Senate and the House. But there were no reactions. According to confidential items out of the office abroad, the justification would be that "this transition and elections can not do much." "The rooms are closed and will meet on March 15 - the answer is unofficial - The situation that lies ahead is reasonable to think long consultations for the formation of the Government, which will come up before mid-April. It 's the government that can actually do something. "
In short, all silent "fault" of the election. Actually own the elections may be an opportunity to bring up this emergency, making it one of the topics of political debate. With the commitment of making it a priority for the next term and, more immediately, to put pressure on the Foreign Ministry in Tripoli require it because the situation in prisons and forced repatriation of those 1,200 and more migrants. Not to mention the action at European level, with parliamentarians in Strasbourg and the Council in Brussels. But no. He remains silent. Yet, fighting for the rights of those displaced slaves in Libya and claim the right to citizenship for children born in Italy to foreign couples are two chapters of the same battle. So how to fight for labor rights and health of workers Fiom discriminated by Fiat and sick leave without assistance. Homosexuals and the disabled, marginalized women and young people who have been stealing the future, education and social services. If you leave out even one of these points you question everything. And he comes to suspect that there is talk of rights only instrumentally. With eyes dimmed by the prospect of gaining or losing a handful of votes.