Migrants Return to Libya to Face Abuse

"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.

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.

Source: Allafrica