[EU, Libya] Reuters - EU plans border security help for Libya

10.12.2012. At a meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers considered plans for a mission to try to stop the trafficking of arms, which have flowed out of Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi last year, reached al Qaeda militants and fanned a separatist rebellion in northern Mali.

European governments are also worried about illegal migration. Under Gaddafi, Libya was a major route for migrants from Africa to Europe until 2009, when Italy signed an agreement with Libya to curtail it.

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[Libya] Newsweek - Libya’s Migrant Workers Still Targeted After the Revolution

[Picture from same article - copyright thedailybeast.com, 03/13/2012 – Image Moises Saman / Redux]

03.12.2012. I met Victor, a Nigerian migrant working in Libya, when he was released from prison on the second night of violent protests in Tripoli in February 2011. He was gaunt and emaciated—like a photo negative of a skeleton.

All day long, there had been reports on Libyan state television of prisoners rioting and of prisons being overrun 
by rebels who were unleashing rapists, drug addicts, and murderers to wreak havoc upon the peaceful citizens of Tripoli. After Victor was freed, he called his girlfriend, Mercy, our new Nigerian housekeeper. He had nowhere to go and he was afraid, so he came to stay at our house.

I never found out whether Victor was innocent or guilty of a crime. He may very well have been guilty, but he was never officially charged. He had been in prison for more than six months, he said, sleeping on a cold cement floor in a small cell with 70 other men. That night, all of the prisoners had been gathered together and told that dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in his clemency, had decided to pardon them. Before their release, they had been led to shout a chorus of the new loyalist mantra: “Muhammad, Muammar, and Libya!”

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[EU, Libya] European Parliament - MEPs express concern about human rights situation of refugees and migrants in Libya

26.11.2012. The European Parliament has expressed grave concerns about the human rights situation of refugees and migrants in Libya in a resolution passed in Strasbourg last week.

“Parliament is gravely concerned that Libya is detaining foreign persons, including women and children, in extreme conditions. It urges the democratically-elected Libyan authorities to protect all foreign nationals, regardless of their status, from violence, exploitation, threats, intimidation and abuse,” says a European Parliament press release.

Libya should adopt appropriate legislation and instructions to this end and respect its international obligations, says the resolution.

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Download the document here

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Dans une résolution adoptée la semaine passée à Strasbourg, le Parlement européen a fait part de sa vive inquiétude concernant la situation des réfugiés et des migrants en Libye en termes de droits de l'homme.

« Le Parlement s'inquiète vivement que la Libye détienne des étrangers, notamment des femmes et des enfants, dans des conditions extrêmes. Il presse instamment les autorités libyennes élues démocratiquement de protéger tous les ressortissants étrangers, quel que soit leur statut, contre toute forme de violence, d'exploitation, de menace, d'intimidation et de mauvais traitement », indique un communiqué de presse du Parlement européen.

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Télécharger le communiquéde presse

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عربي

[Italy, Libya] Migrants at Sea - UN Special Rapporteur on HR of Migrants expresses concern over Italy-Libya cooperation on migration

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Prof. François Crépeau, for the past six months has been conducting “a one-year comprehensive study to examine the rights of migrants in the Euro-Mediterranean region, focusing in particular on the management of the external borders of the European Union.”  

The Special Rapporteur will present a thematic report on the human rights of migrants at the borders of the European Union to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2013.  To date he has concluded official visits to EU offices in Brussels, Tunisia, Turkey, and Italy; a nine-day visit to Greece began on 25 November.  The Special Rapporteur has issued preliminary conclusions at the end of each completed mission.  One common concern is that various actions of the EU and neighbouring countries are resulting in human rights considerations being overshadowed by migration control and security objectives.

At the conclusion of the most recent mission to Italy (30 September – 8 October 2012), the Special Rapporteur expressed concern over Italy’s (and the EU’s) ongoing cooperation with Libya.

Click here (Italy), here (Tunisia), and here (Turkey) for the Special Rapporteur’s statements.

Click here for the web site for the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

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[Tunisia] Tunisia Live - Fire in Shousha Camp Adds to Failed Asylum Seekers’ Frustrations

[Picture from the same article - copyright tunisia-live.net, 12/11/2012]

12.11.2012. A fire broke out yesterday in the Shousha refugee camp in southeastern Tunisia, burning two tents belonging to Somali families.

According to Dario Cardinali, a UNHCR public relations officer in the southeastern town of Zarzis, a resident’s cigarette butt started the fire, which led a gas cooker in the first tent to explode. The fire then spread to a neighboring tent before it was extinguished. Two refugees were harmed in the accident and later admitted to the hospital.

Cardinali explained that residents of the camp are warned against smoking in the immediate proximity of the tents. He said that in October the kitchens that used to serve food to all of the camp’s residents were closed and each family is now provided with a gas cooker to do their own cooking. He assured that the affected refugees will be given new tents.

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[Libye] Amnesty International - Libye. Des étrangers en butte à des violations et à l’exploitation

13.11.2012. Les sans-papiers se trouvant en Libye risquent d’être victimes d’exploitation, de placements arbitraires en détention pour une durée illimitée, ainsi que de violences physiques s’apparentant parfois à des actes de torture, écrit Amnesty International dans une nouvelle synthèse rendue publique mardi 13 novembre.

Ce document, intitulé Nous sommes des étrangers, nous n’avons aucun droit, s’appuie sur des missions d’établissement des faits effectuées en Libye entre mai et septembre 2012, et examine la difficile situation des réfugiés, demandeurs d’asile et migrants dans ce pays.

Tout au long des 42 années passées au pouvoir par le colonel Kadhafi, les étrangers – en particulier ceux originaires d’Afrique subsaharienne – ont vécu dans l’incertitude, du fait de politiques fluctuantes et de la crainte d’être victimes d’arrestations arbitraires, de placements en détention pour une durée illimitée, d’actes de torture et d’autres formes de mauvais traitements.

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Read the article in English

[Tunisie] REMDH, FIDH, FTDSE, Communiqué de presse - Quel sort pour les réfugiés après la fermeture du camp de Choucha ?

05.11.2012. D’après le bureau de Tunis du Haut Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les Réfugiés (HCR), le camp de réfugiés de Choucha, ouvert à la frontière libyenne au début de l’année 2011, serait en cours de fermeture.

Cela alors même que plus de 2000 personnes vivent encore dans le camp, avec ou sans statut de réfugié. Les réfugiés statutaires attendent pour certains la réinstallation. D'autres, malgré leur reconnaissance, ne seront pas réinstallés car enregistrés après la fin du programme. Sur leur sort après la fermeture, rien de précis n'a été annoncé par le HCR. D'après les réfugiés non-statutaires, ils se sont vus annoncer qu'ils ne pourraient bientôt plus bénéficier des services du camp (nourriture, électricité etc.).

Pour l'ensemble de ces personnes, l'avenir est incertain après la fermeture du camp car ils se retrouveront livrés à eux mêmes et sans statut juridique en Tunisie. Cette situation a déjà valu àcertains d'entre eux de subir des abus (salaires non versés, plaintes non reçues au poste de police, agressions racistes...).

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[Libya, Italy] BBC World - The Left To Die Boat

[Picture from the same article - copyright bbc.co.uk, 27/10/2012]

 

27.10.2012. In March last year, 72 African migrants were forced onto an inflatable boat by Libyan soldiers in Tripoli. They were desperate to escape the fighting in Libya and hoping for a new life in Europe. Their boat headed for the small Italian island of Lampedusa, only 18 hours away across the Mediterranean.

There was a Nato naval blockade of Libya at the time and the area was full of military ships and aircraft. Yet, despite a number of sightings, the boat was never rescued.

Fifteen days later it washed up back on Libya's coast with only 11 survivors on board – two more died soon after.

In this documentary the survivors tell their story to producer Sharon Davis and she investigates how it was that these people were left to die in a boat in one of the most heavily-monitored seas on earth. 

Listen to the documentary

[Libya] EU Observer - Libya: hounding of migrants must stop

[Picture from the same article - copyright euobserver.com, 11/10/2012 - Image: Martin Beek]

 

11.10.2012. Nearly a year after the conflict in Libya, the central authorities are struggling to exert their control over the various factions that contributed to overthrowing the dictator.

 

As in all situations of political and social instability, the most vulnerable face the most serious threats. And in today's Libya, even more so than under Gaddafi, migrants, particularly those from sub Saharan Africa, are paying a heavy price.

 

From the outset of the Libyan conflict on 17 February 2011, migrants were particular targets of violence and abuse, causing hundreds of thousands of them to flee the country.But as the country rebuilds itself, Libya is once again a major destination for migrants from sub Saharan Africa, trying to escape persecution and find work.

 

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[EU] EU Observer - EU border chief: 23,000 lives saved last year

[Image belonging to the same article - copyright euobserver.com, 11/10/2012]

 

11.10.2012. Frontex, the EU's Warsaw-based border guard agency, says it has no bilateral relations with Libya as things stand. "They are restructuring their whole public administration including the boarder security system," Frontex executive-director Ilkka Laitinen told this website in an interview also on Wednesday. Laitinen said that Frontex and Libya only share the most basic of information and that the agency could help the post-Gaddafi administration with training exercises if it is asked to.

 

Frontex wants Libya to build up its capacity before engaging in joint operations with the Libyan authorities in the future. It also foresees flying intelligence-gathering drones over the Mediterranean in the "very, very far future."

 

Despite Laitinen's reservations on Libya, Frontex has been taking part in rescue efforts in the region since 2008. Frontex-linked operations saved some 38 percent of people detected at sea, 23,000 people in total, in 247 cases in 2011. "Every third migrant detected in the maritime domain is in distress and saved," the Frontex chief said.

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