Amnesty: E.U. ‘Complicit’ in Torture and Abuse of Migrants in Libya
Amnesty International has accused European governments of being “complicit” in the torture and abuse of refugees and migrants in Libya.
In an effort to stop sea crossings to Europe, the E.U. has provided training and assistance to the Libyan coast guard, which has stepped up interceptions of people at sea. Some 19,450 people have been turned back by the coast guard this year, Amnesty said.
Libya’s U.N.-backed government recently announced it was setting up a joint operations room with Italian authorities to tackle smuggling. Italy has also been accused of making secret deals with Libyan militias to stop migrant boats.
Refugees and migrants stopped at sea are held in Libyan detention centers where Amnesty documented widespread arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, extortion and unlawful killings. E.U. funds are being channeled into improving conditions inside detention camps run by Libya’s official Department for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM). The human rights group said abuse of migrants was carried out by official Libyan authorities and militias alike.
“By supporting Libyan authorities in trapping people in Libya, without requiring the Libyan authorities to tackle the endemic abuse of refugees and migrants or to even recognize that refugees exist, European governments have shown where their true priorities lie: namely the closure of the central Mediterranean route, with scant regard to the suffering caused,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia director.
Amnesty called on Europe to resettle tens of thousands of refugees from Libya and urge the country to release detained migrants and allow the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) to “operate unhindered.” UNHCR has appealed for 1,300 international resettlement places for refugees trapped in Libya.
Seven Children Killed by Fire in Lebanon Refugee Settlement
Seven children were killed when a fire believed to have been started by a gas cylinder explosion ripped through a refugee settlement in eastern Lebanon.
The fire destroyed most of the tents in the settlement outside of Ghazzeh, in Western Bekaa, which is home to around 40 families, according to the U.N. refugee agency. A local NGO worker said the majority of victims were children because most of the adults were out at a local market at the time.
Lebanon has never allowed official Syrian refugee camps, so 1.5 million Syrians in the country live in small clusters of tents in rural areas, as well as in rented apartments in towns and cities.
UNHCR is helping reconstruct the destroyed settlement, and is negotiating with the municipality and landowner to expand the area so tents can be 2m (6.5ft) apart to make it harder for fires to spread.
Number of Refugees Arriving in U.S. Drops After Ban Lifted
The number of refugees coming to the U.S. has plummeted since the Trump administration lifted the suspension on refugee admissions in late October, Reuters reports.
The administration replaced the suspension with an expansion of vetting procedures and a block on refugees from 11 countries pending a 90-day security review. Refugees from the 11 barred countries – including from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria – had made up around 40 percent of refugees coming to the U.S.
While the U.S. said refugees from these countries would be admitted on a case-by-case basis during the review, just 15 have arrived in the five weeks since October 25, compared to 587 refugees from the 11 countries in the previous five weeks.
Overall, 1,469 refugees came to the U.S. in the five weeks after the suspension was lifted, compared to nearly 2,500 refugees during the final five weeks of the ban, according to Reuters’ analysis of State Department data.
Fewer refugees arriving are Muslim, the Reuters analysis found. In the five weeks since October 25, 9 percent of refugee arrivals were Muslim and 63 percent Christian. In the five weeks before that date, 26 percent were Muslim and 55 percent Christian.
Refugees continued to arrive during the suspension on resettlement because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that refugees with “bona fide” ties to the United States should be exempted. The court has since removed that exemption from a separate travel ban.
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