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LIBYA-CONFLICT-MIGRANTS
300 migrants ‘still held in Libya centre’ hit by deadly raid
TRIPOLI, July 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Around 300 migrants are still being
held in the detention centre in Libya where more than 44 people were killed
in an air strike, the International Organization for Migration said on
Thursday.
Of the 600 migrants that were in the centre, “300 were still there”
Thursday and receiving humanitarian assistance from the IOM, Safa Msehli, the
communications director for the organisation in Libya, told AFP.
Msehli was unable to confirm reports that dozens of migrants had fled on
Tuesday night after the raid in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura which also left
130 wounded.
But the IOM said in a statement that its teams had “located” and
transferred to hospital “a group of injured migrants who left Tajoura after
the attack in the surrounding neighbourhood”.
“Innocent lives were lost in the attack on Tuesday night, and immediate
action is needed from all sides,” the IOM’s Libya chief of mission, Othman
Belbeisi, said in the statement.
“The suffering of migrants in Libya has become intolerable. It must be
clear to all that Libya is not a safe port and that thousands of lives remain
at imminent risk,” he added.
The tragedy provoked an international outcry, but the divided UN Security
Council failed to unanimously condemn the attack in an emergency meeting on
Wednesday after the United States did not endorse a proposed statement.
Libya’s internationally recognised government and its arch-foe strongman
Khalifa Haftar traded blame for the deadly assault.
According to the IOM, of the more than 600 migrants detained in Tajoura,
187 were registered with its “Humanitarian Voluntary Return” programme which
helps migrants go back to their home countries.
The IOM “continues to call for an end to the arbitrary detention and
reminds all parties that civilians are not a target,” the IOM statement
added, reiterating that some 3,300 migrants are still detained in and around
the Libyan capital in centres “considered at-risk”.
UN agencies and humanitarian organisations repeat regularly their
opposition to the return of migrants arrested at sea to the North African
country that has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising against
dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
Rights groups say migrants face horrifying abuses in Libya, which remains
prey to a multitude of militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.
Their situation has worsened since Haftar launched on April 4 an offensive
to conquer Tripoli, the seat of the internationally recognised Government of
National Accord (GNA).
BSS/AFP/BZC2045HRS