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Migrants from Africa are holding out in the Libyan capital Tripoli
Photo: STR/EPA
According to the United Nations, the number of migrants from Libya who wanted to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea has risen sharply in the past year. "By December 14, the Libyan Coast Guard had intercepted and returned 30,990 migrants and refugees to Libya, almost three times the number in 2020 (12,000 people)," according to an internal report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the Security Council. More than 1,300 people were killed during the dangerous crossing with boats that were often scrapped.
Here, too, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number increased significantly compared to the previous year. The IOM lists over 1,500 dead or missing on the so-called central Mediterranean route for 2021, which, however, also includes crossings from Tunisia. In 2020 there were fewer than 1,000, at the peak of 2016 more than 4,500. In recent years, the civil war country Libya has become the most important transit country for migrants who want to come to Europe via the Mediterranean.
According to the report by UN chief Guterres, those who were intercepted at sea by the Libyan coast guard and taken back to Libya were sometimes the victims of arbitrary detention.
Overall, there are thousands of people in the North African country - not just migrants - in prisons who do not appear on official lists of inmates.
»Persistent Human Rights Violations«
They are held in "illegal and often inhumane conditions" in militia-controlled buildings or in "secret facilities."
"I remain deeply concerned at the ongoing human rights abuses of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya," Guterres wrote to members of the Security Council.
According to human rights activists in Libya, migrants are repeatedly exposed to violence, extortion and forced labour.
According to the UN, there is credible information that around 30 Nigerian women and children have been sexually abused and trafficked in the past year.
In addition, Libyan authorities allegedly took action against more than 5,000 migrants in October for security reasons, including at least 1,000 women and children.
Families were separated, one migrant killed and others injured.
mrc/dpa
