After escaping with hundreds of others from an overcrowded Libyan detention center where guards shot and killed six migrants, Sudanese refugee Halima Mokhtar Bshara said she just wants to leave the country.
“They attacked us, humiliated us, many of us were wounded,” the 27-year-old from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region said. “We’re at the end of our tether.”
The al-Mabani facility in the capital, Tripoli, was at triple its capacity after police raids against migrants last week, when guards shot and killed the six people on Friday.
Photo: AP
The shooting was “related to overcrowding and the terrible, very tense situation,” the International Organization for Migration said.
About 2,000 migrants and refugees escaped in the chaos, including Bshara and her three children.
The Libyan Ministry of Interior on Saturday denied any “excessive use of force” against escaping migrants.
It said that as “hundreds” of people being held at the detention center escaped, “a stampede” occurred during which “an illegal migrant died and others were wounded, including several police officers.”
A “security operation” following the escape “was handled professionally and without excessive use of force,” a statement said.
Bshara was among hundreds taking part in a sit-in in front of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Tripoli on Saturday.
Dozens of destitute migrants and refugees, including young children, have been sleeping rough in front of the building for days, in the hope of receiving assistance.
“We’re extremely tired, but we have nowhere to go, we are even being chased off the pavement,” Bshara said tearfully.
“For our security, we ask to be evacuated,” a banner at the site said, while another read: “Libya is not a safe country for refugees.”
In chaos since its 2011 revolution, Libya has long been a favored departure point for migrants — many from sub-Saharan Africa — fleeing violence and poverty in their own countries and hoping to reach Europe.
From Oct. 1, Libyan authorities began raiding multiple houses and makeshift shelters in a poor suburb of Tripoli, in what it said was an anti-drug operation.
The UN said the raids, mostly targeting irregular migrants, left at least one person dead, 15 wounded and saw more than 5,000 detained.
Doctors Without Borders decried “violent mass arrests.”
“There were 39 of us living in the same building” before the raids, Bshara said.
At first, she said she and her family evaded authorities by hiding in a well, but they were eventually found and placed in the al-Mabani detention center.
There were so many people there that it was impossible to sleep, said Ismail Derrab, another of those who escaped the facility on Friday.
“We have nothing. We would like to get out of this country,” the young Sudanese man said.
Official migrant detention centers in Libya are riddled with corruption and violence, including sexual assault, the UN and human rights groups say.
The UNHCR had said before Friday’s shooting deaths that it was “increasingly alarmed about the humanitarian situation for asylum seekers and refugees in Libya.”
It temporarily suspended its activities at its Tripoli office this week, citing mounting tensions.
“We renew our appeal to the Libyan authorities to allow the resumption of humanitarian flights out of the country, which have been suspended for almost a year,” it said in the earlier statement.
Waffagh Driss, another Sudanese migrant, said that Libyan authorities had targeted migrants “according to the color of their skin.”
“The situation in Tripoli for black people is terrible,” the 31-year-old said. “We are exposed to every kind of danger. Our life is at risk... I am asking to leave Libya because it is not a safe country.”
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS