Migrant crisis in Libya: "What we want is to be protected, it's security"
Audio 03:45
Men and women in front of the headquarters of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the Siraj district of Tripoli, October 9, 2021. AFP - MAHMUD TURKIA
Text by: Aabla Jounaïdi Follow
3 min
Refugees and asylum seekers in Libya remain more vulnerable than ever after the massive security operation that targeted them this month.
In early October, forces affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior raided a working-class neighborhood housing migrants and asylum seekers, killing seven people and destroying many temporary homes.
Since then, about two thousand of them have gathered in front of the premises of a center of the High Commissioner for Refugees in the hope of being evacuated.
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With our special correspondent in Tripoli,
Youssouf is a 21-year-old asylum seeker who arrived in Sudan from Darfur last year. This October 1, he is in an apartment with several of his comrades in misfortune in Gargaresh, a neighborhood officially targeted by the authorities because it is said to be home to drug, alcohol and migrant trafficking: “
We were at home. , sleeping. Suddenly, around 5 a.m., I heard loud voices outside. I opened the window and there I saw armed men forcibly dragging neighbors down the street. I locked the door and refused to open it for them. This is where they ended up breaking the door. They were 7 or 8 and they beat me, I still have the mark there, on my foot. Then we were put in cars. I told them that I would prefer that they kill me on the spot
”.
In Gergaresh, arrests number in the thousands, women and children included. The interim Prime Minister went there to congratulate himself on the operation, but without a word for the victims. “
There were a lot of migrants in this neighborhood because the rents were cheap and the housing was wild. Unfortunately, the authorities did not plan the operation properly. Some people, especially women, were taken to al-Mabani camp, others slept in the streets, and still others disappeared. It is a big mistake of the government which should have warned of the operation, so that for example the most vulnerable such as women can leave the place. It's a crime
», Deplores Tarek Lamloum of the Libyan NGO Belaady« My country ».
These massive arrests lead to an explosion in the number of people in the already saturated detention camps of the capital.
► See also: Libya: humanitarian flights resume, migrants increasingly vulnerable
Six migrants are killed as they try to flee. One of them, 21-year-old Othman, survived. Now homeless, the young Sudanese has gone to camp with 2,000 other people in front of the community day center operated by the High Commissioner for Refugees. “
I had a passport, a phone. I was taken at all costs when I arrived at the prison. But we managed to escape and we came directly here to the day center. Because what we want is to be protected, it's security. The Interior Ministry offered to take us to a detention center. They are prisons. Out of the question: We want the immediate evacuation. That's why we've been here for almost a month… We're even ready to stay a year without any problem.
"
Faced with rising tension in front of the center
, UNHCR was forced to close the premises and (redeploy) its aid.
According to Jean-Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR's head of mission in Libya, the crisis is further complicating the organization of evacuation flights for the most vulnerable.
They have just resumed.
In Libya, nearly 1,200 refugees are now waiting to take one of these humanitarian flights.
►
To read also: Libya: "The UNHCR is not able to evacuate all the refugees at risk" according to Jean-Paul Cavalieri
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