Dubai – Masaader News
The head of UN Migration Agency (IOM), William Lacy Swing, has urged Libya to stop detaining migrants who have been returned to the country’s shores after trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
That appeal coincided with a call from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to boost search and rescue facilities in the region, amid concerns about a toughening stance in some European Union (EU) countries, against volunteer boats disembarking people plucked from the water.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, IOM’s Leonard Doyle explained that Ambassador Swing had made a personal appeal to Libya’s Prime Minister, Fayez al-Sarraj.
On this third official visit since 2016 to the North African nation, which is a major migrant hub, Ambassador Swing also met some of those in detention.
“One after another, he heard absolutely awful personal stories of human grief in these detention centres,” Doyle said. “His call, really, is not to send migrants back into detention.”
Of more than 50 detention centres in operation last year in Libya, only 17 are still open, Mr Doyle explained, adding that the bulk of migration happened in and around Tripoli, where the internationally recognized Government is located.
Concerning the management of the detention centres, in which the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, has highlighted grave rights abuses in the past, Doyle said there is “government oversight” in some, “but it is far from comprehensive”.
He added that when Ambassador Swing had met the Libyan Prime Minister, he had recommended the construction of separate centres for women and children.
The development follows a sharp increase in Libyan anti-smuggling operations in 2018, backed by the EU.
Last month alone, almost 4,000 people were rescued in the country’s territorial waters, IOM said in a statement, noting with concern that migrants are placed in detention, often in overcrowded and poorly-monitored centres.