“Libya ‘abandoning migrants without water’ in deserts”

Article by Nikolaj Nielsen in EUobserver on 28 January 2022

Libya is forcing people to cross its land borders into 'no man's land', remote stretches of desert without water, according to a UN rights expert.

They appear to be linked to efforts to strengthen the enforcement of Libya's external borders to prevent migrants from reaching Europe,' Benjamin Lewis of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday (27 January).

Speaking to MPs on the Human Rights Subcommittee, Lewis said the deportations were being carried out by Libya's Department for Combating Illegal Migration, also known as DCIM.

It also runs a number of detention centres which are rife with abuse, with documented reports of rape, killings and enforced disappearances. According to one Libyan official, the DCIM is now, and I quote, 'deporting more people faster than ever before'," Lewis said. Official DCIM figures show that 7,500 people have been deported from Libya's external land borders in 2019 and 2020, many from the town of al-Kufra in south-eastern Libya to Chad and Sudan.

But Lewis says the real numbers are much higher, noting that many include children and women who are entitled to protection under international law. Some have simply been abandoned, while others have been abducted and returned to Libya as victims of sexual violence, he said.

We have also noted an increased presence of border brigades or, I quote, 'desert patrols'. These are operating along Libya's land borders, particularly in the western part of the country, close to Algeria and Tunisia,' he said.

Lewis said there were questions about the extent to which the EU's supply of vehicles, equipment and other technology to the DCIM and the interior ministry may have been used to deport people. Two years ago, the Commission handed over 30 off-road vehicles to the Libyan interior ministry to help with border management. Armed militia units are known to operate within the Ministry, as well as within the Ministry of Defence. The Commission has also met with Libyan coastguard commanders in Brussels in the past to discuss needs. It has provided buses, ambulances and boats to the guard, which intercepted and returned some 32,000 people at sea last year. Some of these were aggressively intercepted in Malta's search and rescue zone, as EUobserver witnessed last summer.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, there have been another 6,000 arrests in the last month alone. Some 12,000 migrants are currently being held in 27 Libyan detention centres, raising questions about the fate of thousands more. Suki Nagra, head of the UN mission in Libya, said many were languishing in secret or illegal detention centres run by armed groups. Overall, there has been little or no accountability for these crimes,' she said, also speaking to MPs.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, there have been another 6,000 arrests in the last month alone. Some 12,000 migrants are currently being held in 27 Libyan detention centres, raising questions about the fate of thousands more. Suki Nagra, head of the UN mission in Libya, said many were languishing in secret or illegal detention centres run by armed groups. Overall, there has been little or no accountability for these crimes,' she said, also speaking to MPs.

For its part, the EU defended its role in Libya.

We want to change the whole system to look for alternatives to detention,' said Jose Antonio Sabadell, the EU's designated ambassador to Libya.

He noted that for the first time a camp for women and children in Libya will be supervised by female staff, 'which will prevent at least some of the abuses'. She also pointed out that over the past five years, more than 65,000 people have been voluntarily returned from Libya to their countries of origin or to a safe place.

I think that is a very significant number," he told MPs.