For the hundreds of thousands fleeing war-torn and poverty-struck areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe is seen as the safe haven. However, for those who fail to reach Europe they face the dire consequence of being detained by Libyan authorities, as part of an EU-deal with the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) penned in February. This deal entails the Libyan coastguard stopping migrant vessels leaving Libya, an arrangement criticised as ‘inhuman’ by the UN. Europe has had a clear geopolitical aim: to repel migrants, rather than aid them. It used Libya, a destabilised nation of rival governments as a dumping ground, to rid itself of migrants. It had no regard for the human rights of those in need of sanctuary.
Vulnerable migrants are brutally tortured, abused and sexually assaulted by Libyan authorities in detention camps, or are sold into slavery by people-smugglers. Migrants are treated like cattle, sold for as little as four hundred dollars, moved from one slave-master to another. An Italian doctor Pietro Bartolo called the detention camps ‘concentration' camps. “You must realise that in Libya, black people are not considered human beings, they’re seen as inferior, you can do whatever you want to them,” Bartolo explained.
The terrible humanitarian conditions were not unforeseen. Soon after the deal with Libya was agreed the German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel warned that thousands of men, women and children would face “catastrophic conditions”.
Amnesty International researcher Matteo De Bellis said:
“The EU’s determination to keep people out of Europe means it is ready to have migrants and refugees stuck in hellish conditions in detention camps in Libya, where they face horrific human rights abuses, including torture,”
Now, belatedly migrants will be evacuated. In an African Union-European Union summit in Ivory Coast migrants will be sent mainly back to their home countries. Nigeria had already made a unilateral move to repatriate migrants, with 240 voluntarily flown home on Tuesday night. Ghana also repatriated more than 100 of its citizens detained in Libya. The French President, Macron said the "extreme emergency operation" had been agreed by nine countries, including France, Germany, Chad and Niger. Libya's UN-backed administration joined the agreement, but has only limited control over the territory, raising questions about how it will work in practice. The Libyan government is still largely incapable of controlling any migrant detention centres or camps overseen by militias.
"We have agreed, along with the EU and the UN, to set up a task force for repatriating at least 3,800 people," said AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat. "But it's just one camp … the Libyan government tells us that there are 42 in all. There are definitely more than that. There are estimates of 400,000 to 700,000 African migrants in Libya."
Adapted from here
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/28/the-eu-created-libyas-migrant-abuses-now-it-must-address-them/
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