[ad_1]
On the roofs of the highest buildings of Tajoura, a military complex and a detention center for migrants in the south of Tripoli, snipers take position.
"Tonight, no one will sleep in fear," said a refugee locked up there. "We can hear the sound of guns and the bomb blast near the detention center."
Dozens of people have been killed in fighting in Libya since General Khalifa Haftar, leader of the renegade armed forces, ordered his forces of the Libyan national army to visit the capital, where the government sits of the National Accord, supported by the UN, earlier this month. On Monday, Ghbadan Salame, UN special envoy for Libya, accused Haftar of organizing a coup attempt.
While the fighters who control Tajoura are preparing for a confrontation, hundreds of refugees and migrants inside the complex and in other detention centers in Tripoli are worried about becoming victims and targets. after being forced to play an active role militias aligned with the GNA. Forcing refugees and migrants detained to support combatants could be a war crime.
Since Haftar's advance began on 4 April, migrants and refugees in three detention centers told the Guardian that they had been taken out of locked corridors and ordered to carry and move weapons. some having been transferred to military bases around the city. In a fourth center, detainees said that people had been taken away by fighters, but they did not know what had happened to them.
"Police and soldiers force migrants to clean up and load weapons. They [tell] migrants that if you know how to shoot with a gun, we will make you stay with us, "said a migrant who sent a message to the Guardian using a hidden phone.
The Guardian also received photos of migrants wearing uniforms that appear to be military uniforms.
"We even washed the cars full of the blood of soldiers who were killed on the war front," said another detainee. "They put corpses in military cars. I do not feel well but I have no choice here.
"Forcing civilians to store weapons in a war zone is abusive, illegally cruel and unnecessarily harbading labor," said Judith Sunderland, deputy director of Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch. "Wearing uniforms suggests that they are used as hostages or human shields, two war crimes."
"Far from encouraging detained migrants to engage in these dangerous activities, all parties should take all possible measures to avoid civilian casualties. The authorities should release all arbitrarily detained migrants and ensure their safety. "
About 6,000 refugees and migrants are currently being held in detention centers ostensibly under the control of the Libyan Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration badociated with the Fayez al-Sarraj government.
In reality, however, many centers are run by militias. Management did not respond to several requests for comments.
The 600 or so detainees in Tajoura are among tens of thousands of men, women and children who have been intercepted in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe in the last two years and who have been returned to detention for an indefinite period. The EU spends tens of millions of euros to train, finance and equip the Libyan coastguard, with the aim of reducing migration from Africa.
"They know what is happening in Libyan detention centers but the EU claims as if it did not know it," said one detainee. "Libya is not the ideal place or a safe place where refugees and migrants can stay. They should stop bringing back those who tried to cross the sea. "
An inmate at another center in Tripoli said, "Libya is a human market. People are still working in slavery in Libya, so how can we stay in Libya? "
Prior to escalating fighting over the past 11 days, more than a dozen inmates and former inmates spoke to the Guardian about their forced labor experiences. Sometimes they worked for Libyan guards in detention centers and sometimes for people badociated with them, including relatives.
Refugees and migrants reported cleaning houses, building buildings and working on the farm.
"As an inmate, it's a great opportunity [to] escape the crowded prison, or at least you will see the sun and fresh air while working slave, "said an Eritrean captured at sea in May 2018 and who escaped to Tunisia at the end of last year.
Women do not have to leave the centers to work, but some miners do, he said. "Even minor [people] go to that enslaving job.
Inmates have been forced to work for four or five months in a row, said another man, claiming that he had built homes for guards working for the anti-immigration leadership. illegal. "If I stop working or take a little rest, they will start shouting in a threatening way, which will scare me … If the migrants try to escape, they will shoot them."
Sometimes workers are rewarded with cigarettes, bread or vegetables, but sometimes they get nothing, he said.
The prevalence of forced labor in detention centers for Libyan migrants has been confirmed by other sources, including Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.
A report from the United Nations Human Rights Bureau, released in December, revealed that investigators had collected evidence of forced labor in six detention centers between 2017 and 2018, including Tajoura and Triq al Sikka , located further north in Tripoli.
Last October, a 28-year-old Somali man was turned on in Triq al Sikka after being sprinkled with gasoline with a generator that he had access to while working, witnesses said. Abdulaziz was desperate about his chances of evacuation, said friends. The International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Refugee Agency confirmed the death.
A few months ago, another refugee said he was forced to work in an arms shop. "One day, I went to work there. They have different weapons such as tanks with their rockets and different bombs. "
Source link
