Date: Sat, 31 May 2014 12:23:39 +0200
Caught illegal migrants face squalor and death in Libya
By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Misrata
31.05.2014
Watch this video clip of barbaric refugee prison in Libya:
One Eritrean was asked, why he came to Libya. His answer was "I came to
Libya to cross to Europe in order to get there better life".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27639738
In an isolated Libyan compound, a black iron door creaks open, revealing
gloom and human misery.
Inside are nearly 400 immigrants in filthy conditions. There is barely room
to sit, never mind sleep.
The men are sick, most sit passively on the floor. Some have moved into the
building's metal rafters. They come from most of the countries in Africa;
Niger, Eritrea, Gambia and Egypt to name a few.
Malik Kafasim, is 37 and from Eritrea. I ask if he has paid people-smugglers
to get to Libya.
He responds: "Of course! We paid more than 1,600 dollar, from Khartoum to
Libya, but unfortunately we were captured, somewhere."
They are covered in lice. Malik says some have been in the jail for more
than three months.
Beside him are younger men. They give their ages one after the other, "16",
"16" - and "15" says the last.
There are also men from as far afield as Bangladesh and Pakistan.
"Libya is an open door to Europe," is what the immigrants, the
people-smugglers and even the Libyan coastguard admit.
In a dark corner of the jail lay a man with bullet wounds. He is from
Gambia; he will not say who shot him.
Crowded morgue
It is 320km (200 miles) to Italy from the shores of Libya. A group of nearly
40 illegal immigrants was found off the Misrata coast only last month.
Their underpowered engine cut out four hours into the trip and they drifted
for two days. Their water and food ran out.
It was pure luck the coastguard found them. Col Reda Essa, who commanded the
rescue, says this is Europe's problem, as much as Libya's.
"We applied to the EU to buy boats and helicopters for search and rescue
operations, but we haven't received anything," he says.
"I think that EU countries, especially Italy, are not serious about fighting
illegal immigration."
On the open sea, it's people-smugglers, not the coastguard, who have the
advantage.
Libya's problem is that it has only eight of these boats to patrol 1,930km
of coastline. That is not nearly enough, says the colonel.
They need more night vision goggles and even more body bags for the number
of migrants they are retrieving from the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
At Misrata's morgue, Haj Ramadan explains that the refrigerators are so full
of the bodies of migrants he has had to jam them closed. Once there were
only three a year. Now it's eight a week.
"They're being terribly exploited by the people-smugglers," he says.
"We've been able to revive some and when they come round, they think they
are in Italy. Not all of them die, some make it."
But the morgue is full of bodies - even on the floor.
Broken country
Libya is a country that is barely functioning. Border patrols are carried
out by part-timers and volunteers, like Ahmed al-Balaa.
He explains that immigrants appear in the desert at night, when it is
cooler. On foot they follow for miles the power lines to the cities.
"We find that some of them have died on the way, there are graves by the
roadside, for others we bring ambulances," Ahmed says.
At a checkpoint on the edge of Misrata, the guards explain that they find a
few dozen immigrants every few days. Plenty more pass through without
discovery.
That night, they discover a truck with a false compartment. Inside, barely
able to breath, are two dozen men. One carries a single possession - a
Bible. They are helped out by the guards, most barely able to stand.
Captured, they already know they are not welcome. But the promise of jobs
and money in Europe, they explain, is better than what they left behind.
The men have risked everything to get this far. Without action, Libya warns
that more and more will follow.
Migrant routes into Europe
Illegal migrants in Misrata jail cellMany of the migrants spend months in
the crowded Misrata prison
Continue reading the main story
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27639738#story_continues_3>
A migrant waits to disembark from the Italian Navy ship Sirio after being
rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, in Augusta, Sicily (13 May 2014)
* <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286> Q&A: Migrants and
asylum in the EU
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