Share this page!

Sally Hayden Profile picture
Twitter logo
28 Jun 19, 509 tweets, 266 min read
Photos from a man who says he’s among dozens of refugees camped outside UNHCR’s offices in Tripoli, hoping for help.
“Since the war has taking place in April I have face very difficult moments,I have gone to UNHCR office &there is no much help, the humanitarian situation is down” ImageImageImage
“Forcibly taking rescued people back to a war-torn country, having them imprisoned and tortured, is a crime that we will never commit.’’ theguardian.com/world/2019/jun… #libya
"I have white skin, I was born in a rich country, I have the right passport, I was allowed to attend three universities, and I graduated at the age of 23. I feel a moral obligation to help those people who did not have the foundations that I did." m.dw.com/en/what-drives…
A detainee in Zawiya dc saying they're not being given clean water to drink. #libya ImageImage
Talking to a long term refugee contact who says he was thrown out of a Tripoli detention centre & slept on the streets until a Libyan guy came across him in the middle of the night & brought him to a farm, where he's working in return for food.
"I had no choice & accepted."
"In this place I wish death every day," he said. "I serve all day and night on the farm and inside the house."
An Eritrean detainee who was held in Abu Salim dc, south Tripoli, has died - the third to die since April, according to others there.
This man was 20, another was just 17. ImageImage
As in every other death I’ve covered, the family found out because other detainees managed to contact them using phones that are often prohibited. Libyan authorities & UN agencies take no part in informing families - something I’ve confirmed w aid workers.
Last week I spoke to the brother of a young man who died in Zintan dc last October. He said he found out what happened after seeing his brother’s picture on Facebook in Dec & contacting the poster.
I was the first person to speak to him about it since.
Messages last night from Tajoura migrant detention centre, where more than 40 were killed following an air strike, according to health & emergency workers. Horrific news. Image
My source on the phone from Tajoura last night was asking for me to pray for them. "Oh my God, it's a terrible moment… pray for us, Oh my God." #libya
Background on the air strike(s): "Bodies were strewn on the floor of the hangar, mixed with the belongings and blood-soaked clothes of migrants" aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/d…
Refugees/migrants there are saying the death toll is much higher than what's being reported. 140-161 they're telling me. #tajoura #libya
A detainee I was speaking to at the time of the attack said there were at least two strikes.
Messaging with a Sudanese detainee in Tajoura now.
"The European Union & the UNHCR must bear responsibility for this massacre," he says. It's not the fault of Libyans so much as the international community that failed to protect them.
Aid officials saying again this isn't correct - it's 60-65 deaths & 70 injured.
Lack of updates here today while working on reports. Haven’t heard back from some of my contacts in Tajoura & still hoping they survived this. Thoughts with everyone still there & with the families of everyone killed. Image
Some of my previous work on Tajoura DC, where refugees/migrants worried about being targeted:
1. theguardian.com/global-develop…
2. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
3. telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/2… #libya
Following the US "concentration camp" debate while thinking of EU policy & what's happening in Libya.
For @nytopinion on Tuesday night's attack on Tajoura detention centre, war crimes, & European culpability. nytimes.com/2019/07/03/opi… #libya
@nytopinion Messages from one of the survivors in Tajoura dc this morning, saying they have no food, no water, & no help. Like other detainees, he's also saying the death toll is much, much higher than what has been reported. He's saying he thinks around 130 people were killed. ImageImage
@nytopinion Further details on what happened between the two air strikes on Tajoura detention centre, from a source last night:
aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/l… Image
@nytopinion Breaking: The UN says it has information Libyan guards in Tajoura may have shot at refugees/migrants trying to escape after the first air strike on Tuesday night.
@nytopinion More from speaking to a former Tajoura detainee who was recently evacuated to Niger. He said again they had already warned international organisations about the risk of strikes. irishtimes.com/news/world/mid… Image
@nytopinion A testimony from a witness to the Tajoura attack about the centre's guards shooting at detained refugees/migrants who tried to escape after the first air strike on Tuesday. #libya #tripoli Image
@nytopinion Asked the EU how they can condemn Libya's detention system without mentioning their role in sending people into it, by supporting the coastguard that carry out interceptions & returns. eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/h…
The full response below: Image
Testimony from a refugee who says he was in the cell hit by the air strike on Tuesday, & survived by hiding in the bathroom.
He says guards shot at those trying to escape out the windows.
irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… Image
It seems UNHCR & other orgs are having problems getting access to the survivors of Tuesday's air strike that are still in Tajoura.
I'm in touch with a few & they say they've been left outside in the sun for the last few days, w/o proper food, water or help
Yesterday they say guards tried to force them to go back into hangars beside the weapons stores. They refused & were threatened with violence. They're again appealing for help & evacuation. #tajoura
Please listen to this testimony from a refugee who was recently detained in Tajoura. He talks through what it's like being locked up there & how Tuesday's air strike was entirely predictable. soundcloud.com/user-60656923/…
Messages from a survivor still in Tajoura detention centre. The guards are trying to force them to sleep inside the cells close to the weapons stores, & they're refusing, worried they'll be targeted again. They say guards have threatened to use force tonight. ImageImageImage
A recording sent by a survivor of the Tajoura detention centre bombing on Tuesday. He says it was taken last night when Libyan guards were trying to force refugees/migrants back into cells close to the weapons stores. soundcloud.com/user-60656923/…
Refugee survivors in Tajoura dc still appealing for urgent help. They've been sleeping outside since the air strikes on Tuesday. They say guards are trying to force them into cells surrounded by weaponry & they're resisting. Days ago they saw their friends blown to pieces. Image
Latest @IrishTimes: Refugees say Tripoli government using them as ‘human shields’ irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Detainees protest in Abu Salim dc, south Tripoli: “Today we are holding a demonstration against air strikes on Tajoura dc and to demand justice and safety and urgent evacuation.” ImageImage
2/ a video from the protest in Abu Salim dc.
Messages today from survivors of the Tajoura air strike still trapped in the detention centre. They’ve been sleeping outside since Tuesday & say air strikes are still happening around them. They’re asking for help from UNHCR. ImageImageImage
Protests in Tajoura detention centre today by survivors of the air strikes. #tripoli #libya
Latest report: aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/s…
Survivors of Tuesday's air strikes are on hunger strike & pleading for evacuation. Hundreds remain in Tajoura dc & have been sleeping outside for days bc they're frightened about another attack. #libya Image
"We haven't eaten since yesterday morning. We are fasting… until they make a decision," said one man.
"We don't need food. The only solution is to get us out of here. We need evacuation to a safe place."
"The cell they want [to] lock us in is connected to three weapons stores," said a Sudanese refugee.
"As a human being, how can you put people in cells near weapons? We don't need to stay in Tajoura, please help us, world," said another man.
Today, Pope Francis asked people to join him in prayer for the “poor, unarmed people who were killed or injured by an air strike on a dc for migrants in Libya” & called for humanitarian corridors for those most in need.
vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…
The Guardian view: "Expressions of concern for migrants are hypocrisy of the highest order while states back a warlord, funnel arms to the conflict and then help to trap those trying to flee it." theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Update from Tajoura: after days of hunger striking refugees/migrants say the UN again tried to make them accept a deal where only c.60 would be relocated to the UNHCR centre. They refused & say they were told nothing more could be done, so they should leave the dc. Image
Three different accounts of what's just happened to the refugees/migrants who survived the air strike in Tajoura detention centre. #libya ImageImageImageImage
& a UNHCR statement.
Tajoura survivors walking through the streets. Those in touch with me say they don't know where to go but will try to walk to the UNHCR centre themselves.
To be clear: the word “released” in a Libyan detention centre context can mean being kicked out in the middle of a war zone with no protection, no money, & no help. It’s always necessarily to investigate further.
There were also refugees/migrants left behind in Tajoura dc. Three sources all saying guards fired on them to try force them inside halls again, but it now sounds like no one was injured. ImageImage
Hearing that at least some of the refugees/migrants who set out on foot from Tajoura have now made it to the UNHCR GDF centre & are being allowed inside.
Statement from UNHCR on what happened in Tajoura and the "release" of people yesterday.
My latest - for the @guardian.
@guardian "I saw the hell with my eyes. I saw things that I had seen during the Darfur war." - said a man who survived the Tajoura detention centre bombing by hiding inside the bathroom. theguardian.com/global-develop… #libya
@guardian The @IrishTimes 'World View' podcast yesterday focused on the Tajoura dc bombing, with some audio from survivors.
@guardian @IrishTimes Phone call today from one of the survivors of the Qasr bin Ghashir dc shooting on April 23. His pregnant wife & him escaped afterwards, instead of being transferred to Zawiya dc, bc they were scared of its reputation. He says they're being denied assistance in Tripoli.
@guardian @IrishTimes New @nytimes visual investigation shows how close the weapons store was to the hall in Tajoura detention centre that was hit by the air strike. nytimes.com/video/world/mi… #libya #tripoli
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes More information on this collective New York Times investigation:
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes New UN Refugee Agency statement: Seems to suggest that EU support (tens of millions of euro) to the Libyan coastguard should be conditional on refugees/migrants not being detained.
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes Idi Amin's son in Uganda writes: "Compared to the physical wall Trump is building on the US-Mexico border, the EU has built an invisible but far more vicious wall of torture, slavery & blood in the deserts of North Africa and in the Mediterranean Sea." independent.co.ug/eu-killing-afr… Image
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes More from @melissarfleming on UNHCR & IOM statement about treatment of refugees/migrants in Libya, EU-supported returns there & criminalisation of search & rescue.
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming Growing signs that Libyan detention centres may be closed, but it's necessary to keep considering what will happen to refugees forcibly sent back to Libya as long as the EU keeps funding returns. Those I'm in touch with are terrified of trafficking gangs:
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming Analysts I'm speaking to say closing the centres post-Tajoura would reduce the pressure on both the EU & Libyan authorities, because human rights abuses committed against returnees would be less obvious. It doesn't mean they will stop.
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming UNHCR now explicitly says EU support to Libyan coastguard should be conditional on closure of dcs. All detainees I'm speaking to still terrified of this. They say UNHCR support is inadequate & they're at huge risk if they're released but made stay in Libya
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming 2/ Many have spent 1-2 years in detention now. They may have tuberculosis or other diseases. They & their families are out of money. They're traumatised. They're malnourished. Many have serious eyesight problems from months in darkness. Some have injuries from assaults by guards.
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming A quote from an aid worker I spoke to this week, who asked to remain anonymous. “No detention centres = no human rights abuses in official places. The EU wants to officially close the detention centres to be able to send people back to Libya with (they believe) less pressure.”
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming Please read the latest op-ed written by a refugee currently locked up in a Libyan detention centre. #libya #tripoli
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming "I am a refugee detained on the dangerous front lines of Tripoli’s conflict.
There is barely any food and clean water. There is no rest with the noise of heavy weapons. Even now, the guards abuse us."
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming "We panic every day. We are dying slowly, because of too much depression and starvation. Thinking too much makes it hard for me to sleep. I'm always conscious of the airplanes which come in the night. Just behind our centre falls a lot of bombs." independent.co.uk/voices/libya-s…
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming Read & imagine this is where you ended up - as a direct result of EU policy - because you tried to reach safety.
@guardian @IrishTimes @nytimes @melissarfleming This is untrue. Hundreds of survivors walked out of Tajoura because they were being offered no help from the UN. Some stayed & were threatened again by guards - before escaping Tajoura later. Others escaped hospitals, frightened of being redetained.
Protests in Sabaa migrant detention centre, Tripoli, this week. Hundreds are being held next to another military base. They say there have been air strikes targeting it & the sound of weaponry is constant.
More photos from Sabaa. #tripoli ImageImage
Two weeks after an air strike killed at least 53 detained refugees/migrants in Tajoura, the detention centre is reportedly being built up again, including water tanks paid for with EU money. People are still being brought there & imprisoned there & it remains a military target. ImageImage
IOM says they are not involved in rehabilitation work in Tajoura dc. Unclear whether the tanks were provided before the July 2 air strikes.
Hour-long BBC discussion yesterday about migration & the Mediterranean, including what's happening to refugees in Libya. With @ritula, @YPascouau, @LScazzieri, @AmiraFathalla, @lorenzo_tondo, @borghi_claudio, & @seawatch_intl bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3c…
@ritula @YPascouau @LScazzieri @AmiraFathalla @lorenzo_tondo @borghi_claudio @seawatch_intl MSF's head of mission in Libya, Sam Turner, writes: "To add insult to fatal injury, despite the outrage following the attack, there are still 193 people detained in the graveyard of Tajoura, with the number growing every day." independent.co.uk/voices/libya-i…
@ritula @YPascouau @LScazzieri @AmiraFathalla @lorenzo_tondo @borghi_claudio @seawatch_intl Joint UNHCR/IOM statement following meeting of European ministers in Paris: "We welcome the consensus at today’s meeting on a need to end the arbitrary detention of refugees & migrants in Libya." unhcr.org/uk/news/press/… Image
@ritula @YPascouau @LScazzieri @AmiraFathalla @lorenzo_tondo @borghi_claudio @seawatch_intl Here's a song by Eritrean musician Shamm Habteab, which is being widely shared among detained Eritreans. "This goes out to all my brothers in Libya… We're losing loved ones on the daily… I feel like we're losing our humanity."
@ritula @YPascouau @LScazzieri @AmiraFathalla @lorenzo_tondo @borghi_claudio @seawatch_intl MSF resumes search & rescue operations on the Mediterranean.
"For many – men, women & children – the deadly Mediterranean Sea crossing is the only hope of escaping the nightmare of rape, torture and forced labour that they are subject to in Libya." msf.org/msf-resumes-se…
@ritula @YPascouau @LScazzieri @AmiraFathalla @lorenzo_tondo @borghi_claudio @seawatch_intl EU suspends migration control projects (through Trust Fund for Africa) in Sudan amid repression fears. dw.com/en/eu-suspends…
@ritula @YPascouau @LScazzieri @AmiraFathalla @lorenzo_tondo @borghi_claudio @seawatch_intl News coming in of a large shipwreck off Libya. "Some 150 have been rescued and are being returned to Libya. However, up to 150 may have died at sea." - UN Refugee Agency says
Detainees in Zintan dc say the centre’s manager has threatened to kick them out in ten days if UNHCR doesn’t evacuate or relocate them. They’re weak & sick & far from any aid. #libya ImageImageImageImage
Video shows the moment the second air strike hit Tajoura migrant detention centre on July 2 (at 22 seconds in). This was taken inside a hall full of refugees/migrants beside the one that was hit directly.
A drawing by Aser, a refugee currently trapped in a Tripoli detention centre. Nearly four months on & the conflict is continuing, while thousands of refugees/migrants remain locked up in "official" detention centres on or near to military bases. #libya Image
More drawings by Aser, a refugee currently locked up in a Tripoli detention centre, close to fighting. #libya ImageImageImage
Germany's ARD TV @mittagsmagazin did a segment on the situation in Libyan migrant detention centres today, here from 34.40 minutes in: daserste.de/information/po… Image
Update from Zintan dc, where TB diagnoses are continuing since MSF started working there. IMC, who were previously responsible for medical care, estimated more than 80% of detainees have TB yet weren’t doing hospital referrals for months. Image
Another tweet from UNHCR thanking the EU while failing to mention the EU is training & equipping the Libyan coastguard, the reason many refugees are locked up in Libya. Image
An appeal for relocation from Zintan detention centre following another death. At least 23 refugees & migrants (including children) have died since last September due to neglect & disease. soundcloud.com/user-60656923/…
More messages from Zintan dc yesterday. After the last inter-agency trip, there the UN called for the centre to be closed, but nothing much seems to have been done since. One aid official told me the number of deaths due to neglect is a "major scandal." ImageImage
Concerns from refugees in Libya, & some recently evacuated, about the latest reports that evacuations to Rwanda could begin. They're asking for more details about how & when this might happen, & whether Rwanda will be a transit country or more longterm. ft.com/content/f204d9… ImageImageImageImage
Latest on how indefinite national service in Eritrea tears families apart & forces huge numbers of young people to escape the country, with many ending up in Libya. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Multiple refugee sources in Tripoli's UNHCR GDF centre saying UNHCR has told them they can't resettle all of them & are trying to encourage them to go outside on the streets by offering money. This comes after weeks where they're not getting enough food & water. 1/ ImageImage
The group currently in the UNHCR GDF centre includes many survivors of the Tajoura detention centre bombing. They have little faith that UNHCR will continue to help them if they leave, & say they'll be at risk of arrest or being taken by smugglers. 2/ #libya #tripoli Image
Messages from a Tajoura bombing survivor, now in Italy, who says he has failed to get any medical help for injuries from the bombing/psychological problems & is now suicidal. He's registered with the authorities.
On allegations of abuse of power by staff in the UN Refugee Agency in Sudan, & how refugees say corruption there has been driving them towards Libya.
Christian Eritrean & Ethiopian refugees in Niger singing & praying yesterday. All of them have been evacuated from Libya & are waiting to see where they'll be taken next. 1/
More photos from where they pray in a refugee camp in Niger. I'm told most of the Christian refugees pray twice a day. 2/ ImageImageImageImage
A message from Khoms Souq al Khamise detention centre in Libya, where detained refugees say the guards are abusing them & raping the women. Organisations have stopped visiting & detainees are being forced to work to eat, they say.
"We are at a very critical situation." Image
The writer is also complaining that so many people now are tweeting and publishing stories about the horrific abuse that is happening in Libya, & yet no change is actually happening.
I've been speaking to detainees in Khoms, who say bodies from last month's shipwreck are still washing up on the beach there. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… #libya
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything," said an Eritrean detainee in Khoms Souq al Khamis, while calling for emergency help.
Multiple reports of 10-12 people in Zawiya detention centre being sold back to smugglers by guards/management two nights ago. They were mostly Somalis & Ethiopians, I'm being told.
My latest @IrishTimes also mentioned the recent comment by the UNHCR special envoy for the central Med, who has said he is "concerned by the radicalisation of the migratory dreams & demands of some migrants & refugees in Libya & neighbouring countries."
@IrishTimes Messages from Zawiya dc: "When (the guards) want to sell (detainees) no one can stop them, even UNHCR. UNHCR and IOM must take responsibility for these (sold) people because they (were) brought here from the sea." 1/
@IrishTimes Message from Zawiya dc 2/: "We are facing a big problem in front of us. We do not feel safe. We are living in a very dangerous place." The source says the smuggler the detainees were sold to is a Libyan citizen.
180 refugees/migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean & brought back to Khoms. There are detention centres there & are horrific reports coming out of both at the moment.
A song from the refugees in Zintan detention centre - where 22 people died between September & May.
Asked a detainee in Zintan about the lyrics in their song. Image
Another protest in Abu Salim detention centre, where detainees haven't been given food since last year, & instead must pay for their own using money sent by their (long in debt) families. They say fighting has restarted around them too. #libya ImageImageImageImage
This is approaching 40,000 views in just two days.
Reports of possibly another shipwreck off Libya, with up to 100 people feared drowned.
More than 50,000 views in three days for a song performed by refugees inside a Libyan detention centre. "OMG I didn't expect like that," one of them told me yesterday.
From an intv with an east African who came through Libya. He says the one good thing was meeting others en route.
“(Before) I thought West Africa was like the National Geographic, they don’t wear clothes, they have no development & always have war. They don’t show the cities.”
UNHCR deputy high commissioner visits Libya & calls for increased support for refugees, but doesn't mention the EU's role in returning tens of thousands of them to the country. unsmil.unmissions.org/un-deputy-high…
1/ New UNSMIL report includes these mentions of dcs. "There were also allegations regarding the use of child soldiers and the forced conscription of migrants in detention, in particular for logistical tasks." unsmil.unmissions.org/sites/default/… (see my April piece: telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/2…)
2/ "Migrants and refugees continued to be vulnerable to: loss of liberty and arbitrary detention in official and unofficial places of detention; torture, including sexual violence; abduction for ransom; extortion; forced labour; and unlawful killings." unsmil.unmissions.org/sites/default/… Image
3/ "Perpetrators of violations (against migrants) included State officials, members of armed groups, smugglers, traffickers and members of criminal gangs." unsmil.unmissions.org/sites/default/…
4/ "There were ongoing incidents of violence & the use of deadly force against migrants in detention, incl after protests by migrants against detention conditions. UNSMIL monitored reports of deadly incidents in official dcs at TaS, QBG, Zawiyah & Sabhah" unsmil.unmissions.org/sites/default/…
5/ Serious concerns continue regarding the transfer of migrants rescued/intercepted at sea by the LCG to unofficial dcs in Khoms. 100s of migrants reported to have been sent to dcs were later listed as missing…may have been trafficked or sold to smugglers unsmil.unmissions.org/sites/default/…
6/ "Migrant women & girls continued to be particularly vulnerable to rape & other forms of sexual violence. UNSMIL continued to collect accounts from… victims of sexual abuse by smugglers, traffickers, members of armed groups & officials during journeys through Libya & in dcs." Image
7/ "Another serious concern is the
situation of migrants in Libya, especially those being held in detention centres, who are facing grave conditions of mistreatment and little to no access to basic amenities" Image
8/ "Libya is in no way a safe port of disembarkation for refugees and migrants and I urge States to revisit policies
that support the return of refugees and migrants to Libyan shores." Image
Keep thinking about this detail from a recent interview with an Eritrean now evacuated from Libya:

In the middle of the night in the dcs he said people sometimes get up & start whistling or dancing. "No one would stop them. They were doing it just to disturb the memories.”
Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos has called on EU member states to resettle more vulnerable refugees from camps in third countries, particularly those who were in Libya.
politico.eu/article/migrat…
Receiving multiple reports that the UN Refugee Agency has ordered a large number of highly traumatised Tajoura dc bombing survivors to leave the relative safety of the UNHCR centre in Tripoli & go out on the streets or back to detention centres. 1/ ImageImage
Tajoura bombing survivors say UNHCR staff told them the Libyan interior ministry will be involved if they refuse to leave the UNHCR GDF. This, despite the fact the UNHCR centre is supposed to be separate from DCIM, who ostensibly run the other detention centres. ImageImage
(I have approached UNHCR for comment).
Absolute desperation & devastation from the refugees I'm in touch with in the UNHCR GDF. They say they risk being kidnapped, arrested, tortured & otherwise abused if they are sent out on the streets. 4/ ImageImageImage
Another refugee who was present is saying UNHCR staff threatened bombing survivors both with military force & by saying their cases for evacuation will be closed if they resist leaving the UNHCR centre (where they've been sheltering for the past 7ish weeks). 5/ Image
Two more accounts from more refugees/Tajoura bombing survivors saying UNHCR staff today threatened them with being handed back to the Libyan authorities if they refuse to leave the UNHCR centre. 6/ ImageImage
UNHCR response: The offer to leave was made on a voluntary basis & UNHCR has not threatened to use force. The GDF centre is overcrowded and over capacity.
"We are fully supportive of the Tajoura survivors and we do want to find solutions for each one of them."
I’ve been sent video showing a UNHCR staff member telling Tajoura bombing survivors today that they will be taken back to detention centres by Libyan authorities if they don’t agree to leave the UNHCR Tripoli centre.
A translation of the lyrics of the song written by detainees in Zintan dc, which has now topped 77,000 views on YouTube.
This was the dc where 22 people died in 8 months (incl a small boy from appendicitis), after they were left without hospital referrals. Image
In Luxembourg last month I finally met Yosi, one of the Eritreans I've been in touch with in Libya for the past year. He was evacuated a few months ago.
More on his story here: irishtimes.com/news/world/eur… Image
Yosi was given documents saying he was 16 (now 17) by UNHCR in Libya, but Luxembourg made him undergo a medical test to determine his age & are now saying he is 25. Activists say the medical test is inaccurate.
New statement from UNHCR on their plans for hundreds of survivors of the Tajoura detention centre bombing. Still not clear what will happen to those who refuse to leave the UNHCR centre they've been sheltering in for the past seven weeks. Image
.@IrishTimes report on the fears of Tajoura bombing survivors still in Tripoli. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
@IrishTimes I'm aware of similar situations in Libya, where refugees say their names & photos have been tweeted out by UNHCR, or interviews with them given to local TV stations, without it being explained to them that's what it was for.
Text written by a Tajoura detention centre bombing survivor who has been staying in the UNHCR centre in Tripoli, but now is being told to leave. ImageImageImage
Today Tajoura bombing survivors in Tripoli’s UNHCR centre say there was a big meeting where UNHCR staff reiterated they must leave & have no other options right now. The Ministry of Interior was also present. Multiple sources say this meeting was much more controlled. Image
Unexpectedly nice news coming from Libya & Niger in recent days, where several contacts have been called for medical exams or fingerprints ahead of evacuation or resettlement. All are so surprised & delighted. ImageImageImage
More on the Rwanda deal. An initial 500 are expected to be taken there from Libya.
I’m hearing mixed opinions from refugees in Libya about this. Some say it’s a good opportunity to get more people to safety & others worry it won’t be a long term solution.
New statement today on the Rwanda deal to evacuate refugees from Libya. ImageImage
1/ Three men have been arrested in Italy, accused of torturing migrants/refugees in Zawiya detention centre. My report: irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
2/ Yesterday I spoke to someone still in Zawiya dc.
“People are still tortured, beaten, [made into] slaves and sold like a goat. It’s clear how many prisoners are dead from secret torture and poor medication… We hear in the night noisy screaming.” irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… Image
3/ In April, 325 refugees & migrants were moved to Zawiya dc by UNHCR & IOM. This group was highly traumatised, after surviving a militia attack on Qasr bin Ghashir dc in Tripoli. The organisations claimed to have “evacuated” them “to safety”. unhcr.org/news/press/201… Image
4/ As soon as they arrived, those moved said they were met with threats, aggression, armed guards, & told they would have to pay money to see sunlight again.
They say UNHCR's representative has watched detainees being abused in front of him. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… Image
5/ Zawiya is one of the detention centres migrants/refugees caught on the sea by the EU-supported Libyan coastguard are brought back to directly. Detainees say the worst abuse is reserved for these newcomers, who aren't registered with agencies. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
6/ I'm trying to ID the arrested men with sources who have been/are in Zawiya dc. It's hard without their photos, as detainees don't always know the names of the guards abusing them. Either way, it's clear Zawiya dc is a place of extreme abuse, & hundreds remain locked up there.
7/ Even last night, new people were brought to Zawiya dc from the Mediterranean, after being intercepted by the EU-supported Libyan coastguard, according to a source there. Image
1/ My report for today's @IrishTimes - hundreds of refugees/migrants are expected to be evacuated from Libya to Rwanda in the coming weeks, under a deal involving the AU, with EU funding. Those I've spoken to are hopeful, but they have concerns.
irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
@IrishTimes 2/ “We heard about the evacuation plan to Rwanda, but we have a lot of questions,” said a detainee currently in Zintan dc, where 22 people died in eight months because of a lack of medical care & abysmal living conditions. “Maybe they can forget us there.”
irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
@IrishTimes 3/ “We are afraid, especially in terms of time," said another detainee. "How long will we stay in Rwanda? Bc we stayed in Libya more than two years, & have been registered by UNHCR almost two years. Will we take similar time in Rwanda?” irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
@IrishTimes 4/ I'm being told only around eight people have signed up to go to Rwanda from the Tripoli UNHCR-run GDF transit centre, though there might be more volunteers in other detention centres. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… ImageImage
@IrishTimes A call from Abu Salim dc, south Tripoli, for clothes & shoes. They say it's becoming colder, but people there have no money left to buy any. ImageImageImage
@IrishTimes "The tragedy occurred at Abusitta Disembarkation point in Tripoli as many of the 103 migrants returned to shore (after being intercepted in the Med by the Libyan coastguard) were resisting being sent back to detention centres."
@IrishTimes The Libyan coastguard intercepted nearly 500 migrants/refugees in the past week in the area surrounding Tripoli. They were all moved to detention centres, according to the coastguard (apart from the Sudanese man killed, see above). uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lib… Image
Excellent latest @libyamatterspod episode, going through the background (legal & otherwise) to the current migration policy regarding Libya, & identifying possible solutions.
@libyamatterspod Detainees in Sabaa detention centre, Tripoli, are very upset that MSF has stopped working there, apparently because of problems with the dc management. They say TB patients improved a lot under MSF & staff were kind to them. They worry they won't be given regular medication now.
@libyamatterspod 66 people (including children & a baby) have arrived as part of the first evacuation from Libya to Rwanda.
@libyamatterspod 2/ A picture of the baby girl who was among the evacuees.
@libyamatterspod At least 71 illegal migrants rescued after four days in distress at sea were brought to shore east of Tripoli on Sunday, but then fled, & no attempt was made to capture them, a navy official said. reuters.com/article/us-lib…
@libyamatterspod This comes just over a week after a Sudanese man was shot & killed while among a similar group caught at sea, who resisted going back to detention centres.
@libyamatterspod Zach Campbell revisits what happened on the El Hiblu 1 last March, & tracks down the people who were on board. Great reporting.
Three months today since the Tajoura detention centre air strike, & survivors are still massively suffering
Carola Rakete, the captain of the rescue ship Sea-Watch 3, speaking live now at the European Parliament: europarl.europa.eu/streaming/?eve…
The EU delegation in Libya announces a "Post-Tajoura Working Group" has been created. Meanwhile I'm getting messages today from Tajoura bombing survivors who say they can still hear air strikes from the UNHCR centre in Tripoli.
Image
Hearing multiple reports that someone was shot at this week trying to enter the UNHCR GDF centre. It's unclear what might have happened to him afterwards. Image
Another reported suicide attempt by a survivor of the Tajoura detention centre bombing, this time in the UNHCR GDF centre in Tripoli. (The last was by a survivor who made it across to Italy.)
Late sharing but have a look at this four-part investigation into UNHCR Libya. Many of the things I've heard repeatedly from detainees are covered in it.
Here are the third and fourth parts.
Messages from Abu Salim detention centre, Tripoli, on Monday. Following this, at least eight people left the dc to go & find smugglers in Zuwara. One was a 17-year-old, according to others still in Abu Salim. Image
Linking in my latest report. Aid workers in Libya accuse UNHCR & IOM of whitewashing the deadly cost of European Union migration policy to safeguard tens of millions of euro of funding.
One quote from an aid official in Libya that didn't make the final edit, when asked should the UN be representing the views of refugees & what is the consequence of its inaction.
foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib… Image
Ethiopians who were moved from detention centres to the UNHCR GDF centre now say they’ve been told they need to go back to Ethiopia (& wont be evacuated elsewhere), or else must leave the centre & go out on the streets in Tripoli. ImageImageImage
Apologies for the ineloquence but I'm on the @ForeignPolicy podcast this week. Worth clarifying I'm not the only one in reg contact with detainees, there are others also v dedicated. I've been working on this for 14 months now & nothing has really changed.
@ForeignPolicy More refugees/migrants have reportedly left Abu Salim detention centre, Tripoli, to go back to smugglers on the coast & try & cross the Mediterranean Sea. They've become frustrated with the UNHCR process & given up, my source there says. Image
@ForeignPolicy Many reports that large numbers of detainees in UNHCR's Tripoli GDF - including Eritreans & Ethiopians - have been told they have no chance at evacuation or resettlement this week. It's unclear what will happen to them now.
@ForeignPolicy A protest today in UNHCR's GDF centre in Tripoli. People who have spent years - in some cases - in dcs now say they've been rejected for evacuation without explanation, despite being moved to UNHCR's centre months ago. They say they're now being told to go out on the streets. 1/ ImageImageImageImage
@ForeignPolicy This group apparently includes men, women, & children. They say they will quickly become victims of traffickers or militias again if they're forced out of the UNHCR centre. I asked UNHCR about this two days ago & am still waiting for an answer. 2/
@ForeignPolicy A woman begs for help & evacuation. A translation I've been given: "The UNHCR brought us (to the GDF) themselves and after a long time staying here they rejected us. Please brothers help us, please help as we have been in Libya for many years. Why did UNHCR reject us?" 3/
@ForeignPolicy UNHCR explanation of what is happening in the GDF centre, Tripoli, at the moment. 4/ Image
@ForeignPolicy Meanwhile, Libya has just been elected to the UN Human Rights Council.
news.un.org/en/story/2019/… Image
Detainees in Abu Salim dc held a protest yesterday in solidarity with the dozens in the UNHCR GDF who this week were told they won’t be evacuated from Libya. Those rejected reportedly include pregnant women, children & torture survivors. 1/ ImageImageImage
Video from Abu Salim dc.
“We are left with no option.”
“We are asylum seekers.”
“We need evacuation.”
2/
“Please do not reject us.”
3/
A video reportedly from the UNHCR GDF today. I’ve spoken to several rejected women there. They say they’ve been given the options of going back to the countries they fled (Somalia/war & Eritrea/dictatorship), or going out to live in Tripoli, where they say they won’t be safe.
Meanwhile, 237 more refugees/migrants have been intercepted at sea by the EU-backed Libyan coastguard, with most reportedly brought to Triq al Sikka, the same dc where we documented torture of detainees in February. aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/r…
Several women say they were moved to the GDF from Zintan, where they saw detainees die, incl a young child (see: foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib…) “When we are taken from Zintan… our life changed,(we thought) everything will be ok,” one said. "Now we are rejected”
As women, children & torture survivors have their cases for evacuation from Libya rejected, the UN Refugee Agency calls for more countries to offer spaces to vulnerable refugees. Latest: aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/v…
New Amnesty report on Libya includes this detail about Tajoura dc & the July bombing: that DCIM officials claimed it was necessary to place the detention centre inside a military compound to secure it.
amnesty.org/download/Docum… Image
Significant update from the UN Refugee Agency on its work in Libya.
Spoke to Jake for his Popular Front podcast about the situation for refugees I'm in touch with in Libya.
Yesterday, a resolution calling on EU governments to evacuate migrants/refugees from Libyan detention centres, perform search & rescue in the Med, & re-examine relationship with the Libyan Coastguard, among other things, failed to pass by just two votes.
Full text of the resolution: europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…
"whereas people intercepted by the Libyan coastguard are transferred to dcs where they are systematically exposed to arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions & where torture & other ill-treatment, incl rape, arbitrary killings & exploitation are endemic"
When you see headlines talking about EU politicians' positions on "search & rescue", please remember this is not just about rescuing people in the sea, it is about the EU's active involvement in returning men, women & children to warzone detention centres run by brutal militias. ImageImageImage
A video reportedly showing MEPs yesterday cheering as a resolution, which would have called on European governments to reassess their role in intercepting boats & returning refugees/migrants to Libya, failed to pass by two votes .
Another headline with misleading framing. The failed resolution wasn't just about what the EU isn't doing, it was about what it is doing: actively supporting the return of 10,000s people - incl women & children - to detention centres where they're abused & even killed. Image
Meanwhile, EU begins recruitment campaign for "Europe’s first uniformed service – the European Border and Coast Guard standing corps".
Plans to have 10,000 border guards by 2027.
Survivors of July’s Tajoura detention centre bombing say they’re staging a protest tomorrow to call for help. They’re currently in the UNHCR GDF centre in Tripoli, but have been told they must leave before their resettlement cases have a chance of progressing. ImageImageImageImage
A letter written by survivors of the Tajoura bombing before their protest today. ImageImageImageImage
More frantic messages from people who say they are being asked to leave UNHCR's GDF centre in Tripoli, after having their cases for evacuation rejected. The group includes women & children, & they have all spent months or years in detention centres before this. #libya ImageImageImageImage
Hundreds of refugees/migrants have walked out of Abu Salim dc, after they say Libyan guards tried to force them into halls & lock them up. At the beginning of 2019 this group was given a choice: no food & some freedom to walk around, or food but being locked inside. 1/
2/ Detainees in Abu Salim haven’t been receiving food from Libyan authorities or aid orgs since October 2018. They had no faith it would begin again & many are torture survivors & very traumatised. Their families were forced to send money to buy food, which detainees pooled. Image
3/ While some detainees were evacuated from Abu Salim dc when the conflict in Tripoli began in April, hundreds were left there. In the months since, they’ve regularly heard fighting & the sounds of heavy weapons nearby.
4/ About 450 refugees/migrants have walked from Abu Salim dc, in Tripoli's south, to the UNHCR GDF centre.
They say they're now standing at the gates & the guards won't let them go inside. ImageImage
5/ Statement from the UN Refugee Agency on the Abu Salim escapees who are now outside their GDF centre, asking for protection. Image
6/ A video from outside the GDF in Tripoli. Hundreds of refugees/migrants have arrived at UNHCR asking for protection. They have spent months or years in detention, & before that with smugglers.
7/ Video call with a former Abu Salim detainee who said hundreds will sleep in the streets outside UNHCR’s GDF in Tripoli, hoping for staff to help them. They’re weak & frightened. ImageImage
8/ People asking me why this group is all male: Women & children were moved from Abu Salim a few months ago, after conflict started in Tripoli. Some are among the group who have now had their cases rejected by UNHCR & are being told to leave the GDF.
9/ Another update from outside the GDF in Tripoli, where hundreds are still hoping for protection from UNHCR. They say the UN has told them to go back to detention centres. I’m hearing from other sources Abu Salim’s management may not be willing to take them all back. ImageImageImage
/10 another video from outside the GDF, where hundreds are still waiting and asking for protection. More than 50 have tuberculosis, they’re telling me, & some need medical help.
Really fascinating dissertation examining the work of UNHCR & IOM in Libya. cerahgeneve.ch/files/4815/722… Among other things, more evidence of what refugees were saying months ago - DCIM hold the power in UNHCR's GDF centre, which was supposed to be a safe space Image
2/ Damning assessment of UN work with "urban" refugees illustrates why so many don't want to be released in Tripoli, where they are at huge risk & find it incredibly difficult to get any help. cerahgeneve.ch/files/6115/723… Image
3/ "at the management level, an international UNHCR staff stated they don’t have a contingency plan, which
should be a top priority in a context like Libya. As a consequence, they couldn’t handle such emergencies & closed the doors on displaced refugees…"
4/ This dissertation also says the same thing I reported in my Foreign Policy piece (foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib…), that aid workers in Libya are frustrated at UNHCR/IOM promoting "media propaganda" & "misleading messages" on social media.
"Scholars refer to this as disinformation" ImageImage
Multiple confirmations that the hundreds who left Abu Salim dc & spent two days outside Tripoli's UNHCR GDF have now been allowed inside. UNHCR said the GDF was already overcapacity before this, so it's unclear what will happen next. ImageImage
The first two photos apparently show the former Abu Salim detainees who have now entered the GDF.
One of the things they have brought with them is a picture of Jesus, which you can also see in the attached screenshots from a video taken in Abu Salim dc before they left. ImageImageImageImage
Meanwhile, Italy is to renew its deal with the GNA under which which the Libyan coastguard stops boats at sea & sends their passengers back to Libya. The deal was due to expire this Saturday.
theguardian.com/world/2019/oct…
Though they're inside the GDF gates, the detainees who left Abu Salim say they have no food or mattresses & are sleeping outside tonight again. Others in the GDF gave them some blankets & they're getting water out of a pipe. Image
UNHCR statement below saying that the GDF centre is now at double its max capacity with 1,200 who have escaped dcs, incl new arrivals from Abu Salim.
When UNHCR opened the GDF last year they said capacity was 1,000 - it's unclear why that number decreased. unhcr.org/uk/news/press/… ImageImage
"Nearly seven months after commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive against Tripoli, the war has reached an impasse that foreign support on both sides has failed to unlock." #libya reuters.com/article/us-lib…
Some of the former Abu Salim detainees now in the UNHCR GDF are saying they’ve received no food since Tuesday, except a few biscuits from IOM today. ImageImageImage
Former Abu Salim detainees, now in the UNHCR GDF centre, say they haven’t received any food in six days. They’re weak & starving. ImageImage
One week now without food for the hundreds of former Abu Salim detainees now inside the UNHCR GDF centre in Tripoli. It's not clear why they're not being fed. Other big aid organisations don't have responsibility, this is a UNHCR issue, I'm being told. ImageImage
Dozens of women & children, as well as 10-15 husbands, kicked out of Triq al Sikka dc yesterday, reportedly after a protest. Some have spent 2 years in dcs & are terrified. They've been asking for UNHCR protection in Gurji, but say they were just offered money & told to go away. ImageImage
They have received some aid from MSF but still have nowhere to go. Tonight they say they were beaten up by police/militiamen & forced to move away from the UNHCR office. They say they are worried UNHCR staff are the ones calling the police on them. ImageImageImageImage
A message from someone else with the former Triq al Sikka group.
"Today some kidnapping police came, they beat us & push us to another place… We are in danger situation… Now we are in the baddest situation. This (is) new news. Our life is in question mark." Image
Finally some food today for the former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF. BP-5 is a high-calorie, vitamin-full dry food normally given in disaster relief/crisis areas. ImageImage
"As regards alleged crimes committed against migrants in Libya…My team continues to collect & analyse documentary, digital & testimonial evidence relating to alleged crimes committed in dcs. We are assessing the viability of bringing cases before the ICC"
Image
A video of the group of mainly women & children, as well as some men, who were kicked out of Triq al Sikka dc & are looking for help. I haven't heard from anyone there in a few hours, but last time we spoke they said they were still in the street.
Multiple sources in the UNHCR GDF saying the former Abu Salim detainees still aren't being fed. This - from UNICEF - & some protein bars/biscuits from IOM is the only food they've been given since arriving inside on October 31.
Former Abu Salim detainees in the UNHCR GDF centre in Tripoli continue to be deprived of food. Image
(Just to add that I have contacted UNHCR multiple times about this in the past week, but still haven't got an answer.)
Meanwhile, the former Triq al Sikka detainees, who were released onto the streets, say they have accepted money from UNHCR & found some shelter but still want protection. The group includes many women & children, as well as torture survivors. They say they are still in danger. ImageImageImage
Former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF say those with money can now buy bread from others there, but they haven't formally been given any more food. Given they are now in a centre under the control of UNHCR it's very hard to understand why this is happening
A source among the Tajoura bombing survivors in the UNHCR GDF centre is saying the TB patients among them haven’t been given medication in weeks. I believe several people from the Abu Salim group there were referred for TB treatment last week, but they’re being kept separately. ImageImageImageImage
Former Abu Salim detainees currently sheltering in the UNHCR GDF say they were told by GDF guards today they won’t get any food or water until they leave. They say they need UN protection & Tripoli’s streets/dcs are too dangerous. They’ve already barely eaten since they arrived. ImageImage
It’s unclear whether denying food & water to this group of refugees is a deliberate strategy by UNHCR to get them to leave the UN centre, or if there are other reasons (other refugees there are still getting fed). I asked UNHCR this on Nov 12 but got no response.
The EU has admitted in a leaked report that the detention of migrants is a “profitable business model” for Libya’s government & it cannot monitor the Libyan coastguard, despite spending tens of millions of euro on them. theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/n…
A UNHCR tweet from Nov 20 referred to 10 people who agreed to leave the UNHCR GDF. Other Tajoura survivors say they left bc of stress & constantly being told by UNHCR staff they wouldn't be helped. They also reportedly know Arabic, so are at an advantage compared to others. ImageImageImageImage
Meanwhile, former Abu Salim detainees say they've been told they'll get no more food or water until they leave the relative safety of the GDF. Here's an email I sent to UNHCR on Nov 11 which still hasn't been answered, asking is this deliberate starvation. Image
(Just realised the date on the email above is different to the one I mentioned before. I've been moving between time zones, which explains why.)
116 more refugees arrived in Rwanda, directly from Libya, in the early hours of this morning.
irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… Image
A source saying he tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea but was caught by the Libyan coastguard & returned to Libya three days ago. He wasn't put in a dc but since then a militia has already tried to force him to work for them. ImageImageImageImage
Latest report:
The UN Refugee Agency stands accused of deliberately starving refugees to get them to leave its centre in Libya, despite refugees saying it's the only place they feel safe.
theguardian.com/global-develop…
Internal documents leaked to me show the UN plans to withdraw all food to hundreds more people, including survivors of the July Tajoura detention centre bombing.
An aid worker with knowledge of the situation said: “They are starving the population inside the [facility]. They’re just trying to starve them to motivate them to leave. It’s deliberately withholding aid to put people under pressure.”
UNHCR also plans to stop using its Tripoli GDF as a transit centre.
The document I saw outlined possible scenarios for what might happen next, including that DCIM “moves in and forcibly removes all the migrants/asylum-seekers … [to] detention centres."
“Still now they didn’t give food. I think it is [on] purpose?” a refugee in the GDF told me this week. “Everyone is suffering & stressed & we have all decided to stay here until they use force, bc being returned to a dc means trafficking, torture & abuse.”
UN Refugee Agency statement from last night confirms it is "phasing out food catering" at the GDF & "reassessing the role" of the centre. unhcr.org/news/press/201…
Despite UNHCR not responding to inquiries about whether they're deliberately starving refugees for weeks, UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi has now called our report "offensive".
japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/2… ImageImageImageImage
Letters distributed today to hundreds of refugees/asylum seekers in the UNHCR GDF in Tripoli. ImageImageImageImage
Meanwhile, the former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF still say they still haven't got food. ImageImageImage
An IOM assessment of this group said the lack of food is stopping the sick from improving & jeopardising health of others, esp given it's winter now so calorie requirements increase. It said cold & malnutrition are a "perfect match" for spreading disease.
A video by MSF from Zintan detention centre, saying six husbands were left behind when their wives were moved by UNHCR.
It also mentions the large number of deaths that took place after hundreds of detainees were moved there during 2018 Tripoli fighting.
https://t.co/3TBUphL53w
UNHCR now claiming no one is being starved in its Tripoli GFD & that is not true. An internal UN assessment says 400 former Abu Salim detainees there - incl 100 minors - are “starving”. I’m in touch with that group personally too & they say they haven’t eaten properly in a month.
Messages I’ve just received from one of the former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF who are going without food (actually not someone I spoke to for the report but we were in touch months ago). He says UNHCR is “forcing” them to leave the GDF, though it’s a “death penalty” for them. ImageImageImage
“Very, very hungry. No food at all. We have finished our biscuit weeks ago.”
Here’s the biscuit he refers to, which was given out to former Abu Salim detainees by Unicef on November 6. https://t.co/qHMvFHqmmG Image
In case anyone can’t understand, in these messages he’s also saying they’ll still refuse to leave the GDF bc they’re too frightened. He’s spent 3 years in Libya, but he’s been locked up that entire time until now. “We do not know anything (about) outside.”
https://t.co/tk1h2mg6n8
Two big reports just out on Libyan detention centres. @GI_TOC's 'The Political Economy of Migrant Detention in Libya' globalinitiative.net/migrant-detent…
& @Mixed_Migration's 'What makes refugees and migrants vulnerable to detention in Libya?' mixedmigration.org/resource/what-…
@GI_TOC @Mixed_Migration New video statement from UNHCR's Vincent Cochetel in Geneva again confirming that refugees/asylum seekers will have to leave the GDF to get food from the new year. media.unhcr.org/CS.aspx?VP3=Se…
There was a good AP report out today too with more info: apnews.com/7e72689f44e45d…
Reports two detainees in Khoms Souq al Khamis dc were shot this week by a possibly drunk & definitely armed Libyan militiaman, who came in from outside the centre. They’re now in hospital.
With all the chaos & neglect now happening in Tripoli's UNHCR GDF centre I'm thinking back to earlier this year, when refugees used to call the GDF "the hotel" because it was the nicest place they'd been in years.
More info on expected 2020 resettlement places for refugees who have passed through Libya.
Many already in Rwanda - whom I visited recently - are welcoming this as good news.
It's not as good for those still in Libya. 2,390 is small considering the number in need & in danger. Image
On the road to Gashora, Rwanda, where I met refugees recently evacuated from Libya. They’re grateful to be in a safe place, but still very traumatised & worried about their futures.
100+ people have now agreed to leave the GDF, according to UNHCR, after being told their evacuation cases won't be evaluated inside & food will be stopped from the end of December (100s have already gone a month without being given food). I'll post an account from one next 1/ Image
He says food is already running low because refugees who still are being fed are sharing it with the hundreds who aren't. He also really wants his case for evacuation to be assessed. 2/ ImageImageImageImage
"I am losing hope."
"What is the result of staying at (the) GDF? I take the risk on (my belief in) God."
"Humanitarian organizations… (do) not mind or care about us."
3/
Must-watch France24 documentary which includes the filming team going on board a Libyan coastguard boat during an interception. The reaction by the women, finding they're being taken back to Libya, is really heartbreaking.
The debate afterwards was also very interesting. france24.com/en/20191209-in…
This was written by a refugee who is still in detention in Libya, in memory of all Eritreans who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea.
He asked me to make it public. Please read. ImageImage
Important reads on the EU Trust Fund for Africa:
Countries that receive money are considered to be in a "crisis" so no public procurement is needed
thecorrespondent.com/166/how-the-eu… 1/ Image
The EU plans to double migration spending under the new 2021-2027 budget, while quadrupling spending on border control. 2/
thecorrespondent.com/154/europe-spe…
Pope Francis has again called for the closure of Libya’s migrant holding centres, saying they are places where would-be refugees are dying slowly from “ignoble torture and slavery.” washingtonpost.com/national/relig…
“How can we not hear the desperate cry of so many brothers & sisters who prefer to risk the stormy seas rather than die slowly in Libyan dcs, places of ignoble torture & slavery… We have to seriously commit to emptying the dcs in Libya.”
MSF & SOS Méditerranée's Ocean Viking rescue ship now has 162 people on board after two rescues. Among them are survivors of the Tajoura dc bombing (see quote below).
There is also a baby of just three months old.
They are waiting for a safe port. Image
Multiple reports that a detainee has died in Zawiya (Al Nasr) detention centre. ImageImageImage
Hearing some of my contacts are among those rescued by MSF & are disembarking in Italy today. Amazing to think they have finally reached a place of safety after all they have been through. https://t.co/o53uqK04U3
Linking in my ongoing thread from on board the Alan Kurdi rescue ship. https://t.co/MUCldMlvV5
New MSF report highly critical of EU policy towards refugees in Libya, while highlighting the ineffectiveness of UN assistance.
msf.org/libya%E2%80%99…
"The main objective for European states remains the containment of migrants & refugees in Libya, at any cost. The assistance & protection programmes they finance in Libya are in service to this & act to some extent as an instrument of this brutal policy."
"Notions as simple &fundamental as the protection of asylum seekers… have completely disappeared from the discourse of states & intergovernmental agencies on Libya.
They have been replaced by migration control."
A lot of this MSF report backs up my piece in Foreign Policy about accusations the UN is whitewashing the deadly impacts of EU migration policy in Libya. foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib…
Meanwhile, I’m still getting regular messages, like this one yesterday, from people trapped in a cycle of extreme abuse & exploitation in Libya who are desperate to be heard. Image
From spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dec 20:
"…parties to the conflict in Libya continue to store weapons & ammunition in close proximity to civilian locations, particularly dcs where migrants and refugees are being detained."
ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/… Image
Former Abu Salim detainees at the UNHCR GDF in Tripoli (the same group who have been deprived of food) now say a wall has been built to separate them from others so they can’t even get clean water or eat what they were being passed by other refugees/migrants there. ImageImageImage
Messages from Zawiya’s al Nasr detention centre, where survivors of the April Qasr Bin Ghashir dc attack are now caught up in another fight, in the place they were moved for “safety” by the UN. ImageImage
UNHCR statement on the situation for detained refugees in Zawiya, as conflict escalates. https://t.co/hLPUg1dwC4
Two reports that when former Abu Salim detainees went outside the GDF gates to try & get food they were taken away by police.
This group has been left w/o food or water since they arrived at the end of Oct, & now a wall stops them getting it from others.
ImageImage
Today is the final day food will be provided in the UNHCR GDF centre in Tripoli. People I'm speaking to still there are very frightened. Others have already given up & paid to go to sea. Some were rescued by the Ocean Viking rescue ship.
A third account of former Abu Salim detainees in the UNHCR GDF getting arrested when they tried to find food. Hundreds of them have reportedly gone without food or water for three days, after a wall was build to separate them from others in the centre. https://t.co/7bHjCEpOdo ImageImageImage
"…in a country without a functioning government, huge sums of European money have been diverted to intertwined networks of militiamen, traffickers and coast guard members who exploit migrants. In some cases, UN officials knew…" apnews.com/6a9414416f1bab…
Great to see AP also highlighting Aser's art. He is one of many artists, musicians & writers locked up in Libya's detention centres. apnews.com/b55a574819e26a…
A fourth account of former Abu Salim detainees being taken away by Libyans after they tried to get food. This, despite UNHCR encouraging refugees to leave the centre.
All I spoke to say they’ve also been given no documents guaranteeing no rearrest.
https://t.co/eu6IePoZsR Image
Former Abu Salim detainees protest today in the GDF, saying the UN Refugee Agency is deliberately starving them to make them go out on the streets, where they will be in danger. They also want to know where others who they say were arrested trying to find food were taken.
Multiple reports of rockets hitting close to the GDF today.
"How in the world, how this can happen?," one Eritrean there asked me by phone. "This is a civilian place, GDF is the centre of civilians so most people here are civilians. That’s why we need this place (to be) safe." ImageImageImage
Meanwhile, inside the GDF survivors of the Tajoura detention centre bombing held a memorial to mark six months since it happened.
"We never demanded special country but anywhere we will be safe," one sign says. #libya ImageImageImage
See the t-shirts they have painted.
"We draw it because it describe(d) (in) the moment what happened."
ImageImage
UNHCR statement: “UNHCR is deeply concerned for the safety of refugees & asylum seekers at the (GDF) in Tripoli, Libya, following news that three mortars fell close to the site earlier today. Fortunately, there were no casualties." unhcr.org/news/press/202…
From Al Nasr centre in Zawiya last night, where refugees are still asking for protection & very worried about how close they are to military action. Image
& from the former Abu Salim group in the UNHCR GDF centre, who say things are getting worse as they are denied food & water & pressured to go out on the streets. Image
Our view of Tripoli this weekend from the Moonbird search & rescue plane, which looks for refugee boats in the central Mediterranean. Image
Former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF say they can no longer take tuberculosis medication because of the lack of food. It’s difficult to take it on empty stomachs. Around 45 of them have TB. ImageImage
More on Trust Fund for Africa spending, aimed at stopping migration to Europe. 20 million euro went to a project in Eritrea which is being built by forced conscripts in a system the United Nations has described as “tantamount to enslavement.”
From Tripoli: "My dream for these days is just to have a future. The atmosphere is filled with sadness and the smell of blood a lot. This morning, instead of the sounds of birds, there are the sounds of bombings."
Hundreds of former Abu Salim detainees in the UN GDF centre in Tripoli saying they've been told that the only way to get the people who were arrested trying to buy food released is to agree to go onto the streets or into another detention centre. ImageImage
Appeal for help for 410 detainees in Tripoli’s Sabaa detention centre. People locked up there worried they’ve been forgotten by international orgs bc of all the chaos in the GDF.
They’ve long been victims of beating & food deprivation by the guards. ImageImageImage
Via IOM spokesperson. https://t.co/0DujUijeRx
My latest: refugees pressured to leave the failing UNHCR centre in Tripoli are taking to the sea. 50+ have left & been rescued by NGO ships in the last two months, according to a Somali survivor of the Tajoura bombing who is now in Italy.
theguardian.com/global-develop…
Reports from many sources that two of the former Abu Salim detainees, who left the GDF to find food in the last two weeks, were killed today, seemingly by Libyans who were trying to rob them. Trying to get more information.
UNHCR acknowledges deaths of two Eritreans effectively forced from the GDF through starvation.
Please read my previous reports on the circumstances that preceded this.
1. theguardian.com/global-develop…
2. theguardian.com/global-develop…
https://t.co/MgU63mAMCY
A repeat of the 2018 Nivin incident? cnn.com/2018/11/20/afr… I've since spoken to people violently forced off the Nivin who suffered serious injuries that went without treatment for months afterwards.
Photos I'm told are of the two Eritreans killed after being pushed from the UN centre in Tripoli, which are circulating already online & have been sent to me by many sources who knew them.
ImageImageImage
While a UNHCR spokesperson is denying these two went to the GDF, all refugees I'm speaking to are saying that's not true. Hundreds of former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF have been mostly left w/o food since late Oct. No proper list of their names was ever taken. ImageImageImageImage
Former Abu Salim detainees protest the murders of two of their own.
Aid workers I've talked to with inside knowledge v distressed by the condition of the former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF, but they can't see the UN shifting on its position not to help them. If they don't leave DCIM is expected to use force to move them
A response from one of the former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF when I told him this. He says if they agree to leave UNHCR is insisting on them saying it was a voluntary choice while they say it’s not voluntary when they’re being deprived food & water.
ImageImage
Legal evacuations from Libya are at about 2,000 a year, a tiny, tiny number when you consider nearly 1,000 men, women & children trying to reach safety in Europe have been forcibly returned by the EU-funded Libyan coastguard in the first two weeks of 2020
Hearing lots of anger from refugees in Libya about this UNHCR statement, which comes days after the murder of two refugees who were encouraged to leave a more protected UN centre for “urban” areas in Tripoli. https://t.co/gjaFIWFIG4
Adal, a 16-year-old Eritrean who was being held at Sabaa detention centre, died last Sunday. His friends say they were trying to get him medical help but it was too slow to come. Adal tried to reach Europe in April 2018 but was forcibly returned to Libya by the Libyan coastguard. ImageImageImageImage
Messages from another Eritrean in Sabaa dc who says many detainees there have medical problems & they desperately need help.
"The humanitarian(s) must know. We don't have to keep quiet. This thing will happen again." ImageImageImage
UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Med now saying the agency has no access at all to the GDF, the Tripoli centre they opened in 2018 as an "alternative to detention". In this Nov '19 statement they said they were still operating inside it. unhcr.org/uk/news/press/… Image
I spoke to refugees who were imprisoned with Adal in two different detention centres. They said they are devastated by his death.
Former Abu Salim detainees are now leaving the GDF in groups. Here are messages from two of them - one who has left & one still there.
For more information on the background to this please look at my November report: theguardian.com/global-develop… ImageImageImageImage
For BBC’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’, my report from on board a boat rescuing Libyans escaping the war in Tripoli by sea. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
Former Abu Salim detainees in the GDF saying the UN has taken two groups out now but others are still waiting there without food, despite saying they’re willing to leave too.
They’re still incredibly frightened about losing protection but need to eat. ImageImage
Food currently stopped for hundreds of detainees in Zawiya dc. Received this yesterday. Image
New Alarmphone statement: "Over the past five days, at least 930 people tried to escape Libya on 15 boats - about 850 of them reached Europe." Image
Update yesterday from Sabaa dc, where 16 detainees were reportedly told their cases for evacuation have been rejected, some after years locked up.
"They told them their case is failed, no country has accept(ed) their case. They are all victims. In their country & in Libya." ImageImageImageImage
Second update from Sabaa dc: the detainees apparently told their cases for evacuation were rejected say they were taken to town but left without anywhere to stay. ImageImageImageImage
New UNHCR statement on the GDF, saying they're suspending operations because military/police training exercises are now taking place on site.
"We fear that the entire area could become a military target." ImageImageImage
An aid worker who has worked in the GDF is describing these UNHCR posts as "propaganda", released to promote their services right before they announced they've suspended operations in the GDF totally.
"Thousands of human beings have risked their lives to seek protection. It is shameful that we turn a blind eye to them. This tragedy has gone on for too long now."
One week since I last heard from someone who said he's a Sudanese refugee who survived the Tajoura bombing & has been with a smuggler since Oct. Though he wanted to go to sea & escape, he said he had no choice about when to try & had a lifejacket but they wouldn't let him wear it Image
Today marks three years since the Italy-Libya deal began, & it's now been renewed for another three years with no amendments.
"It defies comprehension" - Amnesty International.
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Two weeks now since I heard from him. Just one of many who go to sea & lose contact. If they’re intercepted & brought to detention it can take months for someone to access a phone again. If they reach Europe it could be faster. Image
Eritreans who were encouraged to leave the GDF by UNHCR are saying one man has since been shot in the leg & they’re being terrorised daily by Libyans with guns. ImageImage
Getting a lot of messages from former detainees who were recently brought out of the GDF under UNHCR’s “urban package” & say they’re struggling in Tripoli. ImageImageImageImage
35+ former Abu Salim detainees who were pushed out of the GDF reportedly among a bigger group paying smugglers over the past week to go back to sea.
I wrote about this happening before: theguardian.com/global-develop… Image
Around 90 people (Including families) apparently taken from Zawiya dc last week & released on the streets also saying they’re struggling. ImageImage
Telegraph op-ed from UNHCR head Filippo Grandi mentions refugees/migrants being intercepted at sea trying to flee Libya, but (as is usual with UNHCR) leaves out that this is a direct result of EU policy. telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…
My report from a mission on board the Moonbird, Sea Watch's search & rescue plane, which flies above the central Mediterranean Sea looking for refugee boats in distress. irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
Lots of sources sharing information that an Ethiopian family among the last few encouraged to leave the GDF yesterday for “urban” Tripoli areas were attacked last night & the father’s hands slashed by thieves. I believe he has since received medical help. Image
Tajoura bombing survivors still in the GDF protesting yesterday, saying they are unwilling to accept UNHCR's offer of a small amount of cash assistance & go out on the streets where their lives will be at risk. #tripoli
"It’s a craven disgrace," said Human Rights Watch's Judith Sunderland about the end of Operation Sophia. "Instead of doing the right thing, or even the bare minimum, EU leaders are saying explicitly they do not want to save lives at sea." irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
"Given the safety situation in conflict-torn Libya at present & the great amount of evidence pointing to serious human rights violations faced by migrants… returned there, I call on your gov to suspend cooperation activities… with the Libyan coastguard"
Latest: from Rwanda, on meeting refugees who have been evacuated there from Libya. foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/20/eur… ImageImage
Fire in Zintan detention centre last night. At least one detainee died, according to many sources. It's not clear yet how the fire was started, though it was likely accidental. #libya
More from IOM on the fire in Zintan.
More than 100 refugees/migrants reportedly remaining in the GDF in Tripoli, despite UNHCR saying they are stopping work there. They continue to say they are unwilling to leave because of concerns for their safety. Here is an appeal from one of them: ImageImage
Refugees/asylum seekers who left Libya by being smuggled to Tunisia say they're being attacked & generally treated badly there. I was talking to a longtime contact yesterday who decided to come back to Libya again in the hopes of reaching Europe.
My report on the fire in Zintan detention centre, which killed one detainee & injured many others: irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Hundreds of refugees and migrants still there (most as a direct result of EU policy) are appealing for help. #libya ImageImage
“The fire and smoke became beyond our capacity. As a result, this tragedy happened.”
“We are in great risk."
“Most of the refugees are desperate. Imagine staying in Libyan prison for three years.”
More than 20,000 men, women & children have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea since 2014.
https://t.co/3uIocEUkcs
Roughly 50 survivors of last year’s Tajoura detention centre bombing have reportedly been told they have to leave the GDF, the former UNHCR centre in Tripoli, by 5pm today or they will be removed by force. ImageImage
A message from someone in the TrIpoli GDF. They say the deadline to leave moved to today but they are still being threatened with force.
“Even if the police wanted to kill us, let him do so... This is our fate.” Image
Everybody needs some good news & here's some:
The refugee who did these drawings from Libya was resettled in Europe & this week got 100% on a language test in his new country's language.
UN Refugee Agency launches #coronavirus funding appeal, while at the same time suspending help to refugees in Libya because of COVID-19. Many of those now cut off were forced to leave the UNHCR GDF centre earlier this year. Image
Talking to a lot of refugees in Libya about COVID-19. Here are messages from someone in Zintan dc, where dozens have died from medical neglect & a recent fire. He’s worried bc they are crowded together but “since we are isolated from the world the possibility to reach us is less” ImageImage
In Khoms Souq al Khamise dc detainees were going outside to work during the day in exchange for food, but now that has been stopped because of coronavirus & they’re worried about how they will eat. ImageImageImage
As Libya records its first coronavirus case, my report on the fears of some of the country’s refugees: theguardian.com/global-develop…
Adding this into my thread on Libya. It's so important not to forget the suffering of hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in a war that everyone I spoke to can't see any fast end to.
UN Refugee Agency once again publicly thanking the EU Trust Fund, the same fund paying tens of millions towards forced interceptions & returns of refugees to detention centres in Libya where they are locked up in horrific conditions, including torture, forced labour, starvation. Image
My Foreign Policy article on allegations the UN is whitewashing the deadly impacts of EU policy towards refugees. Even in the time of coronavirus returns are continuing: foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib…
Detainees in Khoms Souq al Khamis say they're still suffering from a lack of food, given they've been locked inside unable to work, & guards say there is no money to buy food for them.
The group apparently includes dozens of minors & people with TB.
ImageImage
Detainees in Zintan detention centre, 180km from Tripoli, say their food & water supplies have been reduced because of restrictions on movement related to the coronavirus lockdown. There are more than 400 people currently locked up there, according to detainees. ImageImageImageImage
Two sources in Zawiya dc saying this was a daily food ration this week for 230 people. "We are so starved," one man told me. ImageImage
From Thurs: Libya considers its ports unsafe for the disembarkation of migrants - refused to let 280 people, intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, leave the boat bc of the risk of shelling.
iom.int/news/libya-con…
Italy's ports have also been declared unsafe due to covid-19.
"In only one week, 5-11 April 2020, 1,000+ people on more than 20 boats have left the Libyan shore. @alarm_phone was alerted to 10 boats in total, two of which were rescued by Alan Kurdi on 6 April. Over 500 are reported to have been returned to Libya"
alarmphone.org/en/2020/04/11/…
Getting contacted today by multiple sources among the refugees evacuated to Gashora from detention centres in Libya. They say one of the Rwandan security men tried to rape an underage boy last night. They are calling for his removal & an investigation.
More info on this. Refugees say they've been left in the camp with the commander responsible, who is still moving around freely among underage & incredibly vulnerable people, despite officials saying an investigation will happen. ImageImageImageImage
Latest: In Rwanda, an allegation that a policeman tried to rape an underage boy has rocked the EU-funded scheme for refugees evacuated from Libya.
Evacuees are worried there will be no proper investigation or justice.
theguardian.com/global-develop…
“They want to suppress our voice totally. They will fade this incident and we can’t do anything about it because we are refugees.”
Big questions are being raised as to why a UNHCR spokesperson told journalists refugees in Rwanda were protesting the coronavirus lockdown, despite UNHCR being aware of the allegation of the attempted rape of a minor days before. washingtonpost.com/world/africa/r…
ImageImage
Detainees who were released from Sabaa detention centre in Tripoli last month are saying they haven't been getting cash assistance from UNHCR. Around 240 were let out of the dc, after it stopped being associated with DCIM. ImageImage
Update from Zawiya dc, where they are mourning the death of three men who were apparently among the 12 people who died at sea two weeks ago after days w/o help. Acc to my source, the three men were also survivors of the Qasr bin Ghashir dc militia attack. independent.com.mt/articles/2020-… ImageImage
Terror in Tripoli tonight. A message from the front lines: "It is a black night on Tripoli ... we are all very afraid of death, the sounds of explosions are everywhere, and we don't know what happened."
“The war has taken our positive energy. Just pray for us,” she said. #libya https://t.co/itn1LgjlsR
Another death among detainees in Zintan dc on May 14. He was a 39 year old from Eritrea, I'm being told. Exact cause of death is not clear.
"Due to the high temperature and shortage of water and electricity. And high pressure & maybe developed heart disease"- said a source there.
Refugees put out on the streets in a war zone after months or years in detention in Zawiya al Nast dc, & others beforehand, are now left without shelter. Messages from one below.
ImageImage
UNHCR Libya mission head Jean-Paul Cavalieri said the 200 refugees/migrants were "released" from Zawiya's Al Nasr detention centre, & that they have "long advocated" for their "orderly release," but refugees tell me they escaped. One account below: ImageImage
…It seems like the 200 people who were released/escaped were replaced right away.
"Libya’s coastguard intercepted about 400 Europe-bound migrants… over the past two days… the migrants were taken to the Al-Nasser detention center in the town of Zawya"
arabnews.com/node/1679776/m…
More info about this sad death: irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Tewelde Andom was a 39y/o father of 3 who tried to cross the Med in 2018.
He joked that everyone detained in Zintan must have been sinners to have been locked up rather than allowed reach safety.
Image
IOM "deplores the killing of 30 migrants in a shooting yesterday (27/05) involving a trafficker in Libya.
The tragedy occurred is a smuggling warehouse in Mezda, near the city of Gharyan."
iom.int/news/iom-deplo…
Refugees in Zintan dc say 200+ people arrived today after they were intercepted at sea. They’re worried this could bring coronavirus to the detention centre.
“We are fearing.” #libya ImageImageImage
Read these personal accounts by refugees who are victims of EU policy. Their voices are important too.
1. independent.co.uk/voices/libya-s…
2. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
3. newstatesman.com/world/middle-e…
#BlackLivesMatter
Fighting may have stopped in Tripoli for now (bbc.com/news/world-afr…), but so many refugees there are messaging to say they can't pay rent/have no money for food & risk homelessness & starvation. Image
"The coronavirus pandemic means that UN repatriation & resettlement programmes have come to a halt, extinguishing the migrants’ only hope of finding a way out of a cycle of abuse and violence in Libya" - head of @MSF Libya writes. telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @MSF_Sea Image
Armed men attacked Zintan dc on Sunday night. One guard was killed. Detainees say they believe the people who attacked were trying to kidnap them & will try again.
More from MSF: ImageImage
The World Food Programme & UNHCR say they will begin giving out emergency food aid to refugees & asylum seekers in Libya. Many have recently been "released" from detention. However, the biggest problem I'm hearing is how to pay rent. So many are already homeless or risking it. ImageImageImage
Meanwhile, the EU declares #blacklivesmatter. Why is there still no mass public outrage about the tens of thousands of men, women & children intercepted on the Mediterranean Sea (with EU money) & locked up indefinitely in Libya? https://t.co/JAqSHITN0N
Today, the UN moved to establish a fact-finding mission on human rights in Libya since 2016, “with a view to ensuring that perpetrators of violations or abuses of international human rights law & international humanitarian law are held accountable.” Image
Refugee in Libyan detention centre asking why the EU is supporting interceptions on the sea & returns to Libya. Hundreds more were locked up in his dc this week.
"The Libyans don't care about us. Before the rooms were very small… they brought new people & now no place to sleep" ImageImageImage
"People outside in Europe or in other countries, they think about how to be healthy, how to save themselves from covid or other diseases, but here we (are) missing the simplest way (to) eat, sleep, (be) safe."
#libya
"The CSDM has submitted a formal request to the UN Committee against Torture to launch an inquiry procedure under Art 20 CAT concerning Italy’s conduct in the Central Med, which is leading to the mass torture, rape & forced labour of thousands…" centre-csdm.org/request-for-un…
A woman gave birth on a rubber dinghy as six people reportedly died. Everyone was forced back to Libya, a country where they will likely be exploited, imprisoned, abused, caught up in violence & are clearly desperate to escape.
Tonight is the first anniversary of the tragic Tajoura migrant dc bombing.
A survivor writes in the Guardian: "Still, I will never forget the moment. All the refugees fell to the ground. We were screaming… Please world, try to open your eyes to us." theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
"I tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to reach Europe, but I was caught by the Libyan coastguard and they brought me to Tajoura detention centre in eastern Tripoli. The coastguard is funded by the European Union. We blame Europe a lot."
A poem written by survivors of Libya's Tajoura detention centre bombing, to mark its first anniversary. Dozens of refugees/migrants died after an air strike hit the hall they were locked up in. Image
Pope Francis (again) denounced the unimaginable “hell” of Libya’s migrant detention camps as he celebrated a mass on Wednesday in honour of would-be asylum seekers who risk their lives for a better future. nytimes.com/aponline/2020/… Image
& Reuters coverage:
Pope Francis has compared migrant detention centres in Libya to concentration camps.
"Lager is an abbreviation of the German word ‘Konzentrationslager’, or concentration camp."
"The Libyan coast guard has been working actively the last weeks to disrupt the activities of smugglers… Today, I would like to acknowledge your contribution to our common struggle. 60% of all dangerous departures from North Africa are prevented."
Reports that shots have been fired as militia/police arrest refugees/migrants in Garagesh, Tripoli. This is where many of those released/thrown out of dcs have ended up living. "Even we have (documents) sometimes the police (steal) phones & money from refugees," one man told me. ImageImage
Linking these two recent reports into this thread:
'Body floating for weeks in Mediterranean highlights ongoing drownings' irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
'Refugee victims of Tajoura bombing still lie in unmarked graves one year on'
theguardian.com/global-develop…
Refugees/migrants who were locked up in Zintan dc in May, after being caught on the sea by the EU-funded Libyan coastguard, have already been present for two attacks on the dc, including one in which a guard was killed. They - & others there longer - are calling for evacuation. ImageImageImage
MSF confirms this latest attack on Zintan dc (Dhar el-Jebel). #libya
The captain of an Italian-flagged ship is to be tried for allegedly forcing migrants back to Libya, in the first such case in Italy. The Asso 28 supply ship picked up 101 people near the Sabratha platform oil rig in international waters, on July 30, 2018.
thelocal.it/20200719/first…
UNHCR statement on the death of an Eritrean who came to their Tripoli centre looking for medical care this week. Multiple refugee sources say the man was not allowed to enter the UNHCR centre. UNHCR say they called an ambulance for him, but he died before he could be transported. ImageImage
Many reports that a group of refugees/migrants, including Tajoura bombing survivors & people who were forced to leave the UNHCR/EU-funded GDF centre in Tripoli at the start of the year, are once again being held for ransom by smugglers. #libya ImageImageImageImage
Friends are begging for help. Image
The 95 are still calling for help, saying the boat may only be afloat for 1-2 more hours. A cargo vessel has been circling them but doesn't help. "We are so thirsty," one told AlarmPhone. "They have to give us water for the baby. The baby is near to die."
IOM appeals for help for them. It's now 37 hours since AlarmPhone alerted authorities of their situation.
Some on board this boat came from Zintan dc, where dozens of detained refugees/migrants (including children) died of medical neglect. (see: foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib…)
They waited years after registering with UNHCR, hoping for legal evacuation, but say they felt abandoned. Image
A message from someone else in Zintan dc. Two detainees have died there in the last few months alone - one from a fire & one from heatstroke. (see irishtimes.com/news/world/afr… & irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…) #libya Image
"…local authorities started shooting when the migrants attempted to escape from the disembarkation point.
The injured migrants were transferred to local hospitals while survivors were moved to detention."
A third person has died, after being intercepted at sea by the EU-funded Libyan coastguard, & shot upon forced return to Libya.
"The three fatalities were Sudanese nationals. The remaining people who were disembarked were moved to detention." unhcr.org/news/press/202…
An EU statement on the killing of three Sudanese people who were caught at sea & brought back to Libya by the EU-funded coastguard. irishtimes.com/news/world/eur… Image
The Libyan coastguard is now claiming the three Sudanese people that were shot on Monday "were killed by mistake", while apparently saying they had tried to attack security forces & steal their weapons (Google translated from Italian) agenzianova.com/a/5f217a0a6859… ImageImage
The US has now also been involved in coordinating a "rescue" in the Mediterranean with the Libyan coastguard, where the 131 migrants/refugees are brought back to an unsafe country & likely locked up indefinitely.
MSF interviewed the witnesses & the victims (who survived) of the shooting on Monday. They say those shot were all 15-18 years old.
“Unarmed people were shot and killed just because they ran in despair to flee arbitrary detention. This is inconceivable.”
msf.org/people-shot-an…
"One of the two survivors is a relative of one of the three victims, who was shot dead in front of him."
"This is not the first time such tragic events have taken place in Libya – in a similar event, a Sudanese national was killed… in September 2019."
Tuberculosis reportedly spreading quickly among refugees/migrants put out on the streets from the GDF/detention centres.
They say the pandemic now means they can't get access to the UNHCR centre to get a medical referral, so many cases are going undiagnosed or w/o medication. ImageImageImage
MSF & Sea Watch will now go to sea together, in new ship. Despite COVID-19 challenges, "we see that recent state measures to discourage or block life-saving activities in Med – cloaked in public health rhetoric – are reckless & politically motivated," says MSF's Oliver Behn.
During a press briefing announcing their partnership, MSF is saying COVID-19 has marked a "new low" in terms of European migration policy. Here is a timeline of what has happened in the Mediterranean in the months since the pandemic escalated. Image
Part 2 ImageImageImage
Pt 3 of timeline. Image
Pt. 4 ImageImage
Meanwhile, more & more refugees/asylum seekers who spent years in Libya hoping for legal evacuation through the UN are now going to sea, acc to many sources.
Here's someone I'm talking to today. He says he's fed up of UNHCR not helping them, & I am referencing their weekly update ImageImageImageImage
On migrants seemingly now being transferred to "data-collection facilities" upon disembarkation in Libya - intended for the "investigation of smugglers".
“We feel the worst has happened, & that these locations are being used to smuggle or traffic people.” thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2…
Libyan residents in Garagesh, Tripoli, (where most of the refugees/migrants kicked out of the GDF & dcs are now) seem to be threatening landlords with prosecution of some kind if they don’t evict all foreigners. Many refugees/migrants are poor, weak & massively panicking. ImageImage
Meanwhile, IOM says at least 364 children & minors have been caught at sea, trying to reach Europe, & forced back to Libya so far this year. Image
Letter to the Irish Times. Image
Five children among the 45 who drowned this week, in the largest recorded shipwreck off the Libyan coast this year, trying to reach Europe. unhcr.org/news/press/202…
One of the 45 people who drowned in the Mediterranean this week has been named as Sudanese writer Abdel Wahab Mohamed Youssef (known as Abdel Wahab Latinos). Here is one of his last public posts (with a likely flawed translation). ImageImage
At least four shipwrecks took place in the central Mediterranean between 17 and 20 August.
alarmphone.org/en/2020/08/23/…
Thread on Jemal, a 25-year-old Eritrean & another of those who tragically died in this month's shipwrecks.
Message today from one of the crew on board the Sea Watch 4: "Crew and survivors are totally exhausted. Some of these people, rescued at sea, have been on board for over a week. We are providing and emergency response, where states are failing to… 1/
"…Now, we are stranded at sea. Penalised for filling the gap that EU governments have left in the central Mediterranean, where they are leaving people to die with policies of non -assistance. This situation is beyond macabre." 2/
The Banksy-funded rescue ship Louise Michel, which was unable to move yesterday after rescuing more people than the ship could handle, has now transferred everyone onto Sea Watch 4, but the Sea Watch 4 still has no permission to dock anywhere.
- From a letter written by Mouliom Souleman, a Cameroonian rescued by the Sea Watch 4 rescue ship on August 23, 2020.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur… #blacklivesmatter Image
Detainees in Khoms Souq al Khamis dc say UNHCR came today and told them they'll be taken to Tripoli in the next few days & put out on the streets (or "released"). "Is this fair after waiting 2 years?" one asked. They're frightened of violence, kidnapping etc. & want protection.
& from Friday: UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for the closure of all detention centres holding refugees & migrants in Libya, condemning what he described as human rights violations committed there. "Nothing can justify the horrendous conditions."
aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/c…
Acc to the secretary-general's report, 2,780+ people were being detained as of July 31 in centres across Libya. 22% of detainees were children.
"Children should never be detained, particularly when they are unaccompanied or separated from their parents."
People are always asking me how they can help refugees in Libya. @KitchaFitFit1 has been doing amazing work fundraising to help some of the most vulnerable (I've heard this from a lot of my contacts there too).
They’re still waiting to find out what will happen & when.
Adding this to my longer thread.
Latest UN Security Council briefing on Libya by UNSMIL Acting Special Representative in Libya, Stephanie Williams. "As of 21 August, almost 2,400 migrants & refugees are in official detention centres." "Libya cannot be considered as a safe port." unsmil.unmissions.org/sites/default/… Image
Refugees locked up for two years in a remote Libyan detention centre (Zintan) are calling for evacuation/relocation/a visit from the UN.
UNHCR says they haven't been able to access the centre since February.
irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Many of them have been locked up, w/o charge or trial, since they tried to cross the Med Sea to Europe years ago & were caught by the EU-backed Libyan coastguard. So they are there as a direct result of EU policy. Re-upping this because it's so shocking.
Speech by UNHCR high commissioner Filippo Grandi today at UNHCR's annual Executive Committee session "…Libya being the most egregious example of the risks refugees and migrants are exposed to…" unhcr.org/admin/hcspeech…
"Reducing search and rescue capacity, or impeding those who engage to save others, or pushing back people without due process, will not stop people from moving; it will only lead to more deaths and the further erosion of refugee protection."
"Resettlement to third countries remains a vital alternative at least for the most vulnerable… In 2019, just over 100,000 refugees were resettled; less than one half of one percent of the world’s refugees, in a constantly declining trend."
Another horrific death in Libya.
Sudanese in Tripoli protest in front of UNHCR's office, asking for medical assistance, evacuation, protection & an end to what they say is discrimination against them compared to other refugees. ImageImage
…& to forcibly return men, women, & children to a country where their lives are in grave danger.
(Messed up my thread so I'm adding this smaller thread - Oct 9-29 - in here)
Refugees in Zintan are to be put out on the streets in Tripoli after 2+ years locked up in the remote dc, & months in other dcs after they were caught at sea. At least 25 people have died since they were put in Zintan. 1/ ImageImageImage
(The 450 dinar they will be given I believe currently converts to about $68 in the local black market exchange rates - correct me if I'm wrong though). 2/ Image
I wrote recently about the situation for Zintan dc's refugees here: atmos.earth/libya-refugee-… 3/
Fifty asylum seekers have filed constitutional proceedings against the Maltese authorities, calling for damages for the alleged breach of rights they suffered in a pushback to Libya last April. timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…
Reports of another refugee killed in Garagesh, Tripoli, where hundreds of refugees/migrants have been living after they were evicted/released from detention centres. Image
More on this. "The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Yacoub El Hillo, strongly condemns the killing of a 15-year old Eritrean asylum seeker". He was "awaiting resettlement." Two others received head wounds.
The bodies of more than 70 people have washed up on the beach of al-Khums, in western Libya, after yet another devastating shipwreck in the Mediterranean, IOM reported on Thursday. theguardian.com/world/2020/nov…
Hearing from others that this Eritrean 15 yo was one of the hundreds made to leave the UNHCR-run GDF at the beginning of this year. He had been in Abu Salim dc before that, & was among the group that came to the GDF looking for help but were left w/o food.
“She tried hard and wanted to live, but fate was stronger."
A 17-month-old girl has died after her father tried to get her a life-saving evacuation from Libya.
UNHCR says few countries will accept refugees/asylum seekers with serious medical needs. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Death of a 19-year-old Somali in Tripoli.
2 years, 4 months later, & dozens of deaths, Zintan dc is finally emptied. Please read my report into some of the horrors that happened there. When will there be accountability? #libya foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/10/lib…
Message today from a refugee in Libya, who has undergone years of detention, when I ask how he’s doing: “Still, we are breathing.”
U.N. agencies are pressing the European Union to end the growing practices of denying migrants their right to apply for asylum, collectively expulsing them and using violence against people trying to enter the bloc without authorization. apnews.com/article/europe…
Nearly eight months after the UN said it was launching an investigation into human rights abuses in Libya, the mission is yet to really start its work due to funding problems. - @saracreta thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2021/2/17…
Refugees protest today outside the UNHCR office in Garagesh, Tripoli. They are asking to be evacuated from Libya to safe countries. Many were locked up after trying to reach Europe, & spent years in detention centres (without charge) before they were “released” onto the streets.
The protesters are Eritreans who have fled one of the world’s most secretive & brutal dictatorships. #libya Image
UNHCR statement about today’s protest.
Letter from the Eritrean refugees in Tripoli calling for help. #libya ImageImageImage
From the latest UN Panel of Experts report on Libya. "With assistance from Italy, Malta and the European Union, and training by Turkey, the Libyan Coast Guard, operating under the Ministry of Defence, has ramped up its interception activity at sea." documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/… ImageImageImageImage
"Most of those brought back to Libya end up in facilities rife with human rights abuses, 100s remain unaccounted for… Colonel Abdelhafid linked the need for the dcs to (EU) migratory policy… 99% of migrants present in dcs had been intercepted at sea."
"The Minister of Interior, Fathi Bashagha, acknowledged the challenges posed by the situation in detention centres. He also tied their existence to the pressure exerted by a few European countries to prevent migrants from crossing the Mediterranean"
"The Panel pursued investigations into the Al-Nasr DC in Zawiyah (where Qasr bin Ghashir survivors were moved by the UN in 2019) & found its de facto manager, Osama, had committed several violations of int humanitarian law & int human rights law."
More heartbreak in the central Mediterranean. I’m talking to people who are still waiting to try & cross now, after years locked up & exploited in Libya. They know the risks but feel they have no other option.
"We called the Italian authorities at least 20 times. Last time we asked them for the number of the Libyan Coastguard, but they refused to give it to us. "
4,159 people who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, to reach safety, have been returned to Libya already this year, including 293 women & 224 children/minors.
Wrote an @IrishTimes report on these figures & the people waiting to cross. irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
Nearly 500 people intercepted trying to reach Europe in the last 24 hours.
Italian prosecutors wiretapped journalists covering what’s happening to refugees in Libya & the Mediterranean. theguardian.com/world/2021/apr…
One now caught & locked up in detention again, another out of contact for 1.5 weeks. #libya
Rescues needed.
Good article with updates on the El Hiblu 3, the teenagers accused of hijacking a ship so the 100+ with them weren't forcibly returned to Libya. They're still on parole in Malta & facing terrorism charges. spiegel.de/international/…
Frightening update on the rescues needed this weekend.
Meanwhile...
Sudanese refugees protest in Tripoli today. They are calling for assistance, to be taken to a safe place, & to not be confused with mercenaries.
"We are victims of the system of genocide in Sudan & the ethnic cleansing of Darfur. South of the Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains & Kordofan" ImageImage
A statement:
"We are victims of violations and human rights.
We are victims of mass destruction.
We demand international protection by all human rights and humanitarian organizations.
We are not well."
#BlackLivesStillMatterInLibya
ImageImageImageImage
Prosecutors in Sicily alleged to have wiretapped conversations involving at least 15 journalists who report on migration in the central Mediterranean/Libya route.
One killed & two teenagers injured yesterday in Al-Mabani detention centre in Tripoli. Shots "fired indiscriminately into cells where detained people were held". #libya ImageImage
"The centres have become increasingly overcrowded since early February when there was a rise in active interceptions of migrants and refugees fleeing Libya by sea by the EU-funded Libyan Coast Guard."
Another Libya-based trafficker freed. "Abdel-Rahman Milad (aka Bija), who was sanctioned by the United Nations’ Security Council, walked free Sunday… less than four months after his arrest."
apnews.com/article/libya-…
In June 2018, the Security Council imposed sanctions on Milad & five other leaders of criminal networks engaged in trafficking… migrants from Libya. (Milad was) head of Coast Guard unit in Zawiya “consistently linked with violence against migrants”
Getting the news that a refugee I'm in touch with, who spent four years in Libya between smugglers, detention etc, has made it to Italy. He paid a smuggler (one of many attempts) & crossed the sea. There was no other way to reach safety. Now, he can finally make an asylum claim.
First call with him yesterday & he's totally elated. Often refugees who reach Europe have weeks before they can contact family/friends & say they're safe. They lose phones at sea or before. In the meantime, family have no idea if they're alive or not.
At least 120 asylum seekers feared dead after boat capsizes off Libyan coast.
theguardian.com/world/2021/apr…
More, from AlarmPhone, on this tragedy:
So where was the EU when Kidane - a trafficker accused of potentially moving tens of thousands of people through Libya towards Europe - was on trial? (He has since escaped & his victims have no justice)
vice.com/en/article/m7a…
My report on the shipwreck. European & Libyan officials accused of ignoring calls for help, leading to massive numbers of deaths (again). irishtimes.com/news/world/afr…
New review of the EU Trust Fund for Africa (which funds the Libyan coastguard to do Mediterranean interceptions, among other things).
"At the end of 2021, the last contracts of EUTF for Africa will be signed… over €4.8B committed since 2016."
ec.europa.eu/trustfundforaf…
Some important reporting published today on the way that Frontex coordinates with the Libyan coastguard to carry out interceptions of refugee boats in the central Mediterranean.
"Officials at Frontex in Warsaw are conscious of the fact that their main objective is to help keep refugees from reaching Europe’s shores. They often watch on their screens in the situation center how boats capsize in the Mediterranean…" spiegel.de/international/…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Sally Hayden

Sally Hayden Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @sallyhayd

Sally Hayden Profile picture
14 Dec 19
I’m currently in Palermo, Sicily, where the @seaeyeorg’s Alan Kurdi rescue ship is about to begin another mission out on the Mediterranean, off the Libyan coast. We’ll be at sea for up to a month.
I’ll update on this thread.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur… ImageImageImageImage
My first view of the Alan Kurdi ship on Thursday...
& the view waking up on it this morning. The crew is still doing training & expect to leave Palermo port in the next few days. Image
Read 20 tweets
Sally Hayden Profile picture
3 Mar 19
I'm starting a new thread about the urgent situation at Libya's Triq al Sikka detention centre. As many as 30 refugees, incl 4-6 minors, are currently believed to be in an underground cell, where they may have been tortured as punishment for protesting.
aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/r…
These are pictures from the protest on Tuesday. Detainees were asking for a visit from the UN Refugee Agency, who they say guards repeatedly threaten to ban, & better conditions (they're locked inside all day & night, no sunlight or fresh air, some for 1 year or more). #Libya
This is the same centre where Somali refugee Abdulaziz burnt himself to death in October, after telling friends he had lost hope of getting out. It's also where there was a TB outbreak after infected detainees were left w/o medication for more than a month aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/l…
Read 27 tweets
Sally Hayden Profile picture
10 Feb 19
It seems an independent auditor came to Abu Salim today looking into UN activities. The guards told detainees in advance not to mention that they haven't been fed for months (some of their families are sending them money to buy food with instead, which guards take a cut from). ImageImageImageImage
Messages today from Qasr bin Ghashir dc, southern Tripoli, today, where they’re asking for evacuation & any organisation that can help them. ImageImage
Sorry for my confusion, the teenager above was being held in Qasr bin Ghashir, but has now been moved to the UNHCR facility in Tripoli for evacuation. He's asking for help for those he left behind. Image
Read 755 tweets
Sally Hayden Profile picture
27 Aug 18
For the last 24 hours I've been texting & calling with refugees in Libya. 500 are apparently stuck in a Tripoli prison w/o food & water after heavy fighting broke out two days ago. They say their guards ran away, leaving them alone.
These refugees are men, women & children. They tried to cross the Mediterranean earlier this year, but were found by Italian boats, who turned them over to the EU-backed Libyan coastguard, who put them in prison. The conditions were already terrible before the fighting started.
Oh the phone earlier I could hear children crying & what sounded like bombing in the distance. The refugees say everyone's incredibly frightened. "We hear machine guns, tanks, big bombs, last night from the roof it was all fire."
Read 293 tweets
Sally Hayden Profile picture
14 Jul 18
Big & exciting day today: I'm in the car with three Lord's Resistance Army defectors. We're on the way to Gulu, northern Uganda, where they'll be reunited with their families for the first time in 16 years. They look serious in this pic, but really everyone is all smiles (Thread)
They were kidnapped as children aged 9, 13 & 16, by the militia led by Joseph Kony, which was responsible for taking 10,000s of children from northern Uganda & forcing them to become child soldiers. Until this week they didn't even know their families were still alive.
They defected in Banda, northeast DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) a few weeks ago, & arrived in Kampala on Wednesday. Then they went through a few days of procedure & paperwork with the Ugandan government's Amnesty Commission (pic from there).
Read 27 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @sallyhayd has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @sallyhayd!

Read all threads by @sallyhayd