Three Sudanese migrants were killed, and four others injured, in a shooting last night in Khums, east of Tripoli, during the landing operations. The migrants had been intercepted at sea and brought back to land by the Libyan Coast Guard. This was announced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), reporting that "local authorities started shooting when some migrants, who had recently come ashore, tried to flee". The five injured migrants were taken to hospitals in the area, while most of the survivors of the accident were transferred to detention centers.
"The suffering suffered by migrants in Libya is intolerable," said Federico Soda, head of the IOM mission in Libya. "The use of excessive violence has once again led to meaningless deaths, in a context characterized by a lack of practical initiatives aimed at changing a system that is often unable to provide any kind of protection". The IOM reiterates that "Libya is not a safe haven" and again appeals to the European Union and the international community "to act urgently to stop the return of vulnerable people to Libya". "It is necessary to put in place an alternative system that allows people rescued or intercepted at sea to be taken to safe ports - reads a note -. It is also necessary for there to be greater solidarity between European and Mediterranean states. who are at the forefront. "
In the first seven months of this year, or at least until yesterday, 6,518 migrants were brought back to Libya by the Libyan Coast Guard, mostly men (5,716), but also women (462) and minors (340) including 84 girls: the World Organization for Migration (IOM) reports in a weekly bulletin published on Twitter. Throughout 2019 Libyan operations to recover migrants at sea had brought 9,225 people back to Libya. In 2020 the drownings on the "central Mediterranean route", the one that leads from Libya to Italy, have so far been 101 and 168 migrants reported missing, the Oim graphic still reports. Throughout the past year, 270 people were missing in the same stretch of sea and 992 missing, recalls the UN agency.
Meanwhile in Italy there is controversy in Lampedusa whose hotspot is collapsing.