Refugee emergency in Libya. But Europe is silent and electoral agendas in Italy there is no place for human rights

Emilio Drudi

"You bet 'spring Libyan'. Libya is proving to be a country that is more and more decisively towards the barbarism in terms of human and civil rights. Hundreds, thousands of African refugees suffer in the camps where they were relegated, in a situation degrading to human dignity. And Europe is complicit in this "Don Mussie Zerai, president of Habeshia, no discounts to Community policy for the humanitarian disaster is looming in Tripoli.
The dispute comes as a whip, in particular for Italy where, as we are preparing to vote for the new government, the political agenda of all political parties to human rights did not appear or take up a maximum of chapters quite marginal, much remained to be absent from the electoral debate. Even in the face of emergencies huge, as more than 1,200 migrants and asylum seekers who, in these days, threatened with expulsion from Tripoli to their countries of origin where, at best, expect them long years in prison.
Libya has not signed the Geneva agreements on the protection of migrants and refugees. With Gaddafi, however, signed the Convention of the African Union, in force since 1974, which is binding on all Member States to receive and protect refugees "without distinction of race, nationality, membership of a particular religious group or political" . "Only that in the new Libya, one born of revolt against Gaddafi - says Don Zerai - the opposite happens, as if that agreement did not exist. In these weeks leading up to the second anniversary of the revolution which was hit the Gaddafi regime, the military and the police have unleashed a real hunt black. Victims are Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somali refugees but also the band sub-Saharan Africa. The country is heading rapidly towards a further barbarism on the most basic rights. In recent months we have received numerous testimonies from Christians attacked only because they carried an image, a sign of their faith. And in detention centers discrimination is constant: even non-Muslims are obliged to observe the rules of Ramadan and you risk a beating fierce if you are caught with a Bible in hand or with a cross around his neck. "
The situation is particularly severe in the fields of Sebha and Birak in the far south hall expulsion to their countries of origin, tenaciously pursued by the government in Tripoli although for many refugees, starting with the Eritreans, the return to the states by whom have fled means years and years of hard prison or even death. But, apart from the risk of expulsion, the same conditions of detention in Libya are terrible. Agency Habeshia came reports of prisoners herded dozens in one room. In one case, even 130, in a real hell dormitory infested rats and lice, a few sips of water to drink and nothing at all for personal hygiene, inedible food, clothes reduced to rags, held subject to constant beatings and ill-treatment or used as arms work at no cost. Slaves deprived of any right to which is subtracted also most of international aid: "80 percent of the material that comes from Western NGOs disappears at the hands of security guards in refugee camps and humanitarian organizations do not have the strength to request that, as foreseen in the agreements, all donated resources are instead used effectively for migrants and refugees. Even many sick or injured to the aftermath of beatings and ill-treatment are left to themselves: there are no doctors, no assistance, are made to disappear medications taken by the NGOs. "
"A deafening silence and guilt surrounding this - says Don Zerai - Ports and eyes closed in the face of an ordeal that is revealed every day a serious violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the Geneva Conventions on humanitarian law international treaties and declarations on international and regional needs of refugees and of the Convention of the African Union, Libya has signed. " But Europe is silent. In fact, trying to raise a thick curtain of "mute" on this serious humanitarian emergency that she favored and still contributes to food every day. Don Zerai is adamant about it: "Europe, Nobel Laureate for Peace, has a guilty conscience with the blood of so many innocent people who die in Libyan detention centers, commissioned by the policy of closure and 'outsourcing' of continental borders in the south the Mediterranean. Europe is complicit in the violations of human and civil rights, discrimination on grounds of race and religion of which they are victims in Libya today thousands of refugees in sub-Saharan Africa. How denounce today, is the result of many political and diplomatic pressure that Europe has done and continues to do because countries like Libya do the work to close criminal in real ghettos thousands of African refugees. So that they can not come knocking directly on its doorstep. " In other words, no matter what the species barrier "by proxy" produces suffering, oppression and death. Import only "lock down" the Mediterranean. And the ensuing massacre takes place as far as possible and as quietly as possible. That does not raise clamor, in fact.
So far has been no exception to Switzerland, perhaps the only country that provides the ability to accommodate requests for asylum even at its embassies all over the world. "But in the month of June - warns Don Zerai - this channel is likely to close: is planning a referendum to ask their total abolition also of that which is now the only option. If the proposal passes, the circle of Fortress Europe will close completely. A choice on the one hand promotes illegal trafficking in human beings and other exponentially increases the suffering of refugees and displaced persons, forced into concentration camps such as those in Libya. And 'essential, then, that the European Union to change its immigration policy, immediately removing the agreements with countries that do not respect human rights and the rights of refugees and opening a legal path protected input for asylum seekers. While also providing the opportunity to submit questions at the diplomatic missions, especially where there are humanitarian emergencies and obvious cases of persecution. "
Beyond the responsibility of the entire European Union, is an indictment that directly affects Italy. It is clear that the policy followed so far on immigration and the reception due to an infinite range of rights violations, cruel forms of exploitation, bullying, victims. Yet, in the debate of the election campaign that is about to end, this chapter has been totally ignored. Indeed, "Mute". He was silent the right, which is responsible for the delegation to Libya on the control of migrants in the Mediterranean, with the agreements signed at the time by Berlusconi. He was silent the center, with the Monti government has renewed the agreement. He was silent even the left, who voted en bloc these terms from the start, without getting a single doubt. The same Bersani, during his visit to Libya as leader of the center, in the aftermath of the primaries just won, was careful not to raise the issue. Despite complaints and appeals by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and, above all, of Amnesty International. Not a word, in particular, by the Italian politics, the petition asked by Amnesty to all parties to listen to "the cry of the oppressed and the persecuted" that rises every day from the South. Starting precisely from Libya.