TRIPOLI — Godwin risked everything for a
better life in
Europe, but he was detained and ransomed in Libya by EU-backed
authorities accused of “extreme abuse” against captured migrants.
اضافة اعلان
The 34-year-old Nigerian had paid 1,100 euros for a
place on an overcrowded vessel from the Libyan port of Zawiya, heading for
Italian shores via the world’s deadliest migration route.
“It was night when I got on the boat, it was already
dark. I didn’t know (where we were going),” he said, giving only his first
name. “I just wanted to go to Europe and have a good life.”
Those hopes were dashed when a Libyan patrol boat
approached.
Godwin said he was so reluctant to avoid going back
to Libya that he considered throwing himself into the sea.
But he was detained and dragged back to Libya, where
he was only released after his family paid a 550 euro ransom.
His is far from the only case.
Earlier this month,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said
some 32,450 people had been intercepted by Libyan forces last year and “hauled
back to arbitrary detention and abuse” in the war-ravaged country as European
countries turned a blind eye.
HRW accused the EU’s border agency Frontex of using
a drone to provide information that “facilitates interceptions and returns to
Libya ... (despite) overwhelming evidence of torture and exploitation of
migrants and refugees”.
The migrant-run @RefugeesinLibya Twitter account
regularly posts images of refugees allegedly killed by Libyan forces or
tortured to extort money from their families.
Refugees in the country are “tortured by European
taxpayers’ money, dehumanized and deprived in all forms,” it said in a recent
tweet.
That chimes with a report in October by UN experts,
who said acts of “murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, (and) rape”
against detained migrants in Libya may amount to crimes against humanity.
Malta ‘abandoning’
vulnerable boats
None of this has stopped the
EU funding and working closely with the Libyan coast guard to prevent migrants
reaching northern Mediterranean shores.
The accusations against Europe are not limited to
financial support.
Alarm Phone, a group running a hotline for migrants
needing rescue, this month accused Malta of failing to launch operations to
rescue migrants in danger, “despite their obligations to do so” under
international law.
“Alarm Phone has witnessed this non-assistance
policy in action innumerable times,” it said, accusing Malta of “abandoning
boats at risk of capsizing” within the island’s search and rescue zone.
From the start of January until August 20, almost
13,000 migrants have been intercepted and dragged back to detention in Libya
while trying to cross the Mediterranean, according to the International
Organization for Migration.
Some have been detained, while others have been sent
home or simply allowed to leave the overcrowded detention centers.
A further 918 were either dead or missing.
Libyan authorities deny reports that migrants are
abused.
“The arrests are carried out according to the rules
in place,” a migration official said.
‘No work, no food’
But many argue that the long
years of lawlessness since a
NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime
dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011 has left the country prey to armed groups and
people traffickers.
“Human rights? There are no human rights in Libya,”
said Hussein, another migrant stuck in Tripoli.
The 26-year-old from Sudan said he had tried to
reach Europe on an overnight boat crossing in 2017.
“The Libyan coast guard caught us and sent us back,”
he said.
He was detained for a day before managing to escape,
he said.
He called on African countries to “look after their
people” and discourage them from leaving, “instead of European countries
funding Libya to stop migration”.
But despite the risks, both Godwin and Hussein said
they were saving money for a new effort to reach Europe.
“Now I’m just in Libya, suffering, there is no work,
no food to eat, nothing,” said Godwin, wearing a paint-specked t-shirt and a
grey beanie.
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