From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Sep 22 2009 - 09:54:46 EDT
Libya: Migrants Returned to Face Abuse
Sabina Zaccaro
22 September 2009
_____
Rome - "They beat us. They beat everyone, men and women. They usually beat
us in the same room where we were kept. But they took some people out of the
room. Not me, but they took other women out of the room."
Nadifa*, a 19-year-old from Somalia, was among 91 migrants, asylum seekers
and refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in May 2009. She had
been detained in Kufra, southeast Libya for 20 days before sailing to Italy.
The report, "Pushed Back, Pushed Around: Italy's Forced Return of Boat
Migrants and Asylum Seekers, Libya's Mistreatment of Migrants and Asylum
Seekers," released by HRW Monday, tells a harrowing tale about the treatment
of migrants in Libya through the testimony of those who have managed to
reach Italy and Malta.
The report also criticises Italy's practice of intercepting boats full of
migrants on the high seas and sending them back to Libya without the
required screening.
African boat migrants.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of
irregular boat migrants arriving in Italy from North Africa rose from 19,900
in 2007 to 36,000 in 2008, an 89.4 percentage increase. Italy also received
31,164 new asylum applications in 2008, an increase of 122 percent from the
14,053 asylum applicants in 2007.
A cooperation agreement reached between Italy and Libya in May instituted a
practice of towing boats intercepted in international waters back to Libya
without determining whether some of those aboard might be refugees, sick or
injured, pregnant women, unaccompanied children, or victims of trafficking
or other forms of violence against women, HRW charges.
On the surface, the policy has been successful. In the first week after the
interdiction programme began, about 500 people in boats were summarily
returned to Libya, according to HRW.
This triggered a remarkable reduction in the number of boats attempting the
journey across the Mediterranean. In the following eight weeks, only 400
people were interdicted and returned; irregular migration by boat to Sicily
and Sardinia fell by 55 percent in the first six months of 2009 compared to
the same period the previous year.
But HRW says Italy is acting in violation of the country's legal obligation
not to commit refoulement - the forcible return of people to places where
their lives or freedom would be threatened or where they would face a risk
of torture.
"Italy is sending people back to abuse," Bill Frelick, HRW refugee policy
director and author of the report told IPS. "All migrants we interviewed,
who had been detained in Libya, told us about brutal treatment and
overcrowded and unsanitary conditions."
Many of those interviewed by HRW said womenare regularly taken away from the
detainees' group and sexually assaulted.
Madihah*, a 24-year-old Eritrean woman who was held in the Libyan migrant
detention centres of Al Fellah and Misrata said, "All of the women had
problems from the police. The police came at night and chose ladies to
violate."
HRW urges the government of Italy to immediately stop interdicting and
summarily returning boat migrants to Libya. It should also stop cooperating
with the Libyan authorities on the interdiction of migrants trying to leave
Libya.
The Italian Interior Ministry did not have immediate comment responding to
the Human Rights Watch report, although Frelick told IPS that a meeting with
government officials is scheduled for Sep 22.
The report also urges the European Union - currently negotiating the
Libya-EU Framework Agreement - to ensure that Libya ends the arbitrary
detention of migrants and "that conditions of detention conform to
international minimum standards."
The respect of the rights of asylum seekers and migrants should be a
condition for any cooperation on migration-control schemes, the report says,
"in order to protect detained migrants from physical abuse, including sexual
and gender-based violence, and hold police and other officials accountable
for any abuses."
* Names in the report were changed to protect identities.
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