Extortion, physical and sexual assaults. This is the day to day in the centers where hundreds of migrants intercepted on the high seas after fleeing Libya end up. Jimmy recounts the hell of him in a Libyan prison, after being intercepted by the country’s coastguard fleeing from horror. “Every day I ate a piece of bread, only one piece until the next day. Even the water they gave us to drink was toilet water,” he confesses.
He managed to escape, but was arrested up to three more times in the Mediterranean. “They sent me to prison and locked me up. The guards told me to pay them“, he affirms. Jimmy says that they told him that if he did not give the money, he would not leave. Juan Matías Gil, head of the MSC Central Mediterranean Search and Rescue Mission, confirms the horror that some migrants are experiencing. “People who have been tied up, handcuffed for three or four months, women who are systematically raped,” she says.
For its part, Doctors Without Borders denounces that, after five years, the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Italy and Libya has not only failed to meet its objectives, but has institutionalized, they say, a system of constant human rights violations. The head of the MSC Central Mediterranean Search and Rescue Mission criticizes that a monitoring system was never put in place. “The answer was never to cancel these funds or seek responsibilities for what was being done, but rather budgets have been increased year after year,” he explains. Since 2017, the EU has provided Libya with more than 455 million euros to stop these migratory flows and improve the development of the country. Even so, deaths continue to rise.
María Jesús Vega, spokesperson for UNHCR Spain, points out that in 2021 some 30,000 refugees have crossed into Europe from Libya through the central Mediterranean and 1,500 of them have lost their lives. Also, the number of people intercepted and forcibly returned to Libya. This is confirmed by the data provided by Juan Matías Gil. “In 2021 alone, 32,000, which is triple the number of last year,” he says. For this reason, they demand that Europe reverse this agreement and stop financing that has only increased a system of abuse that is practically impossible for many migrants to leave.
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
