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UN slams EU-Libya blockade of refugee flow

Tuesday, 14 November 2017 7:00 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 14 November 2017 7:01 PM ]

Refugees queue after a rescue operation at sea on October 13, 2017 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. (Photo by AFP)

The European Union's policy of helping the Libyan authorities intercept migrants in the Mediterranean and return them to "horrific" prisons in Libya is "inhuman", the United Nations said Tuesday.

"The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the conscience of humanity," the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

"The European Union's policy of assisting the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept and return migrants in the Mediterranean (is) inhuman," he said.

Chaos-ridden Libya has long been a major transit hub for migrants trying to reach Europe, and many refugees and migrants have fallen prey to serious abuse there at the hands of human traffickers and others.

Zeid warned Tuesday that "the detention system for migrants in Libya is broken beyond repair."

PressTV-Libya refugees in shocking conditions: UN

The UN warns that thousands of Libyan refugees are at risk of abuse on a shocking scale.

"The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya, and pretend that the situation can be remedied only by improving conditions in detention."

Zeid's comments came after ministers from 13 European and African countries on Monday pledged steps aimed at easing the migrant crisis around the Mediterranean, vowing especially to help improve conditions for migrants held in Libya.

At a meeting in Bern of the contact group on the crisis along the so-called Central Mediterranean migration route, the ministers also reiterated a pledge to strengthen Libya's coast guard.

The Libyan Coast Guard tries to recover refugees from a rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea on November 6, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Italy, with the support of the European Union, has since the summer been training the Libyan coast guard to intercept boat migrants as part of a controversial deal that has sent migrant arrivals to Italy down nearly 70 percent since July.

The UN rights office criticized European countries for ignoring warnings that the deal could condemn more migrants to detention, exposing them to torture, rape, forced labor and extortion.

Zeid called for the decriminalization of irregular migration, insisting that "only alternatives to detention can save migrants' lives and physical security, preserve their dignity and protect them from further atrocities".

According to Libya's Department of Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM), 19,900 people were being held in facilities under its control in early November, up from about 7,000 in mid-September.

The huge hike came after authorities detained thousands of migrants previously held by smugglers in the Libya's people-trafficking hub Sabratha, to the west of Tripoli.

(Source: AFP)

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