UN report in Libya: "UN has documented cases of sexual slavery"

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Migrants at a detention centre in Zawiyah, 45km west of Tripoli, Libya, June 17, 2017. Taha JAWASHI / AFP

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The UN fact-finding mission has "reasonable grounds" to believe that "crimes against humanity" were committed in migrant detention centres in Libya, according to its report. This situation is also of concern to Human Rights Watch. The NGO has been documenting abuses in these centres for several years.

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During the night, the guards come with a torch, approach the women, choose one and rape it. Meanwhile, men have orders to sleep." These facts perpetrated in the center of Bani Walid, 170 km from Tripoli, are among those reported by witnesses to UN experts. A situation also documented by HRW. Interview with Hanan Salah, Libya researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

RFI: What do we know about the cases of sexual slavery in these detention centers documented by the UN?

Hanan Salah: We had long documented cases of sexual assault in detention centers, mainly against women and girls, sometimes against boys and men. But what is new and an extremely important revelation: the United Nations has now documented cases of sexual slavery. That is, people are restrained, not just held against their will, but are repeatedly forced to engage in sexual acts in the form of slavery. And as the United Nations rightly says, this is a crime against humanity.

RFI: According to UN experts, the European Union "aided and abetted the commission of these crimes." How exactly?

For several years now, and at least since 2011, the European Union has been putting not only a lot of effort but also a lot of money into supporting very violent groups so that they contain migrants and asylum seekers in Libya, so that they have no chance of reaching Europe.

The European Union therefore provides boats, training... In its latest research, Human Rights Watch found that the European border agency, Frontex, also provides air support to locate the whereabouts of these boats in distress. It then passes this information on to the Libyan Coast Guard to enable them to arrest people and return them to Libya.

RFI: So what role should the European Union play now, according to Human Rights Watch?

The European Union must simply end the pressure it is putting on migrants and asylum seekers in Libya, they must stop supporting the coast guard and these abusive militias that essentially arrest people at sea and bring them back to Libya where they are all subjected to inhumane conditions: beaten, raped, or worse.

► READ ALSO: The UN mission is "crimes against humanity committed" in Libya

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• Libya
• European Union
• Immigration