The European Union must do more to help protect migrants stranded in Libya and to convince its member states to share the burden of caring for refugees who reach Europe, a senior official at the International Organisation for Migration said.
“This will be a hot pursuit tonight,” the coast guard captain tells me. It is dusk over Tripoli’s harbor and we are standing in the control room of the Kifah, an aging, German-made patrol boat. I had joined its crew of eighteen one evening last month expecting to be searching …
One illegal immigrant was killed as gunmen attacked a patrol for the Libyan coastguards that had intercepted 570 immigrants off Sabratha shores, Libyan Nay said Saturday.
Official statistics are not available but many Libyans I know have either first-hand experience of being kidnapped or have had a family member or friend abducted. Most families do not speak out, fearing that if they go public their loved ones will be killed or tortured in captivity.
The United Nations launched a ($75.5-million) appeal to tackle a swelling humanitarian and migration crisis in Libya, on Tuesday as the country continues to be used as a staging post for crossings to Europe.
This week, fighting erupted between rival militias in Tripoli, shattering a period of calm that lasted since March. The UN-backed government lost more than 50 fighters.
A day after reaching safety aboard a humanitarian ship, migrants, some of whom were enslaved, told of arbitrary detention, slavery and beatings in Libya as Europe seeks to build up the Tripoli-based coastguard.
Libya on Thursday asked Italy to arm the patrol boats it uses in the fight against illegal immigration across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe, the Local It reported.
Amnesty International has appealed to the authorities in Tripoli to urgently investigate the kidnapping of Tripoli University professor, Dr Salem Mohamed Beitelmal, who has been missing since 20 April.
The interior ministers of Germany and Italy have written to Brussels urging the creation of an “EU Mission” at the border between Libya and Niger “as soon as possible,” after over 40,000 people traveled through the North African country into Europe this year.
