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A system of abuse against migrants in Libya, led by militias and the government, is fueled by European Union money given to authorities in a country where violence has normalized after years of instability, according to a new documentary to be released in October.
A number of migrants and refugees speak of the abuse and torture they suffered at the hands of Libyan militias in Libya: no way out of hell by documentary filmmaker Sara Creta.
Their views are juxtaposed with those of the militiamen, many of whom have now been absorbed into the Libyan army, who say the migrants under their surveillance “have not been denied anything”.
Libya’s second civil war (2014-2020), sparked by a chain of events after the fall of Libyan strongman Muammar Khadhafi in 2011, saw parts of the North African country in tatters as militias scrambling to position themselves in all-out war. Two main centers of power emerged: a UN-backed government in Tripoli and allied forces in Khalifa Haftar in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Africans fleeing insecurity in their own country, forced registration or other types of persecution came to Libya with the aim of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
According to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, around 1,093 migrants have died this year as they crossed the Mediterranean Sea along the Libyan coast.
The film reveals that migrants who were placed in detention centers, like Tajura, on the outskirts of Tripoli, were pawns during the war. In horrific conditions, with 600 people from 36 countries seated in one room, the men say they were forced to clean tanks and other military equipment.
“It was really clear that the militias were using these camps, especially Tajura during the war, as a military base. And there are videos of weapons stored next to migrants and refugees, and armed vehicles inside detention centers, ”Creta explains.
Tajura was the target of a military airstrike on July 2, 2019, killing more than 50 migrants and refugees and injuring 130, according to official reports after the murder.
Human shields
“We cleaned the blood from the corpses,” said a migrant in the video after the airstrike, who spoke of forced labor supervised by militias.
The documentary shows how the militias sought legitimacy in the name of migration before the EU and member states by agreeing to deal with migrants’ settlements, but in fact used the detainees as human shields, Creta explains.
“I really wanted to show the normalization of the violence and mistreatment going on in the sense that these militias controlling the detention centers are that their ultimate goal is to fight for power, for political gain and to accumulate weapons” , she says.
“It is very clear that these groups are responsible for keeping refugees and migrants in this state, and at the same time, the European Union and the Member States are complicit,” explains the filmmaker.
It refers to the EU’s Migrants Agreement signed in February 2017 with one of the country’s three Libyan governments at the time. The deal, which would kick off the treaty between Italy and Libya and include funding to stop migration to Europe, fund health care for migrants and save migrant boats.
“They are providing assistance to the Libyan coast guard, to the Libyan authorities, to intercept people in international waters and bring them back to Libya, when it is known that they will be returned to this inhuman and degrading treatment in the centers of detention, ”she said. said.
EU and UN complicit in degrading treatment
“We need to start talking about state complicity and human rights violations in terms of international law,” Creta says.
An official from the Libyan Migrants Office for Illegal Migration speaks into the camera that Libya is one of the countries that has never signed the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951; everything that is done for migrants does not comply with any law.
“The EU, Italy, other governments, and also in part the UN… have contributed significantly to the abuse of migrants in Libya,” Creta said.
“It is certain that the EU and the Member States are using the UN and the fact that the UN has access to these centers,” she said, adding: “I think the way Europe should start to really reconsider this cooperation and these agreements with Libya.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has done nothing for those stuck in this situation, says one migrant in the documentary, saying the office’s attitude was so “you’re good enough to work, so go ahead, ”says a migrant in the documentary.
The migrant adds that he did not ask UNHCR for money, but was saddened by the agency’s lack of solidarity. Others brought up similar situations with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) who said the UN group only suggested migrants return to their countries of origin. No alternative or support was offered.
The process
No escape from hell is unusual in that there is very little voiceover to describe a complex situation. Instead, Creta says she didn’t want to impose a particular point of view, but to give voice to EU officials, Libyan officials and militias, as well as refugees and migrants.
“I really tried to interweave these three to give the audience as much of the situation on the pitch as possible,” she said.
Shooting on a shoestring budget, the Italian director has spent most of her time on the pitch in Libya shooting without a team. She says this turned out to be an advantage, especially when speaking to the migrants who suffered while in detention.
“I had to build trust with the survivors because it was difficult for these people to talk about the violations while they were still stranded in Libya,” says Creta.
Loose hope
Migrants and refugees offer their perspective on the events they have survived over the past three years in Tripoli, and some in Zintan, a town more than 200 kilometers south of Tripoli.
One migrant describes finding “less than nothing” in the restless Libyan capital, where he arrived to plan to travel to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.
Constantly thwarted by the Libyan civil war (2018-2019), armed attacks in detention, and now living in the Gargaresh slum in Tripoli, the migrant N’doka says: “when you see us, you see the people who have lost hope “.
The hour-long documentary doesn’t always have someone speaking; there is the story of the war in Libya and how it affected migrants as well as perspectives on their daily lives, where it reflects those who have lost hope.
La Creta says refugees and migrants are losing the ability to control their lives, blaming her on European Union policies that fund Libyan authorities to prevent these people from crossing the sea to Europe.
One scene shows refugees holding signs, saying “UNHCR what are you waiting for? And “we are dead but not yet buried”.
“The structural effects of these policies are the normalization of this treatment, and the use of camps where people are mistreated is part of this new policy of outsourcing,” she said.
“They are stuck in this situation, and at the same time they are in the system of extreme abuse, where some of them spend years in detention,” says Creta, who has worked on the refugee crisis in Libya as a as journalist and filmmaker.
“Spending three years of your life in a detention center without seeing the light or being able to move, or eat, or drink or cook, you also lose the ability to think, in fact. And to dream and be in control of your life, ”she adds.
Torture is generally viewed as physical, according to Creta, and torture certainly exists that way in detention centers. But migrants receive no food or water, and are constantly humiliated, which are other forms of torture and ill-treatment.
“European countries are deliberately paying Libya to prevent migrants from reaching European jurisdiction to seek asylum,” she said.
“We should also start talking about complicity in these crimes against humanity, because they know that these people are returned to these detention centers which are governed by rape, torture and murder,” adds the filmmaker.
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