Migrants were coerced into paying for their release from a Benghazi prison
Migrants sent to sea with little food or water
An exhausted migrant is helped ashore after landing in Malta on November 9. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli
The 246 migrants rescued off Malta last week were coerced into paying for their release from a Benghazi prison, only to be forced onto an overcrowded boat with little food and water, the UNHCR revealed yesterday.
The group of Africans, including 47 women and 28 children who arrived in Malta on November 9 after being rescued by the Armed Forces of Malta, have narrated their trail of horror to officials.
The migrants, mainly Eritrean, told UNHCR Malta that Libyan human traffickers gave them food and water for just two days. They then crammed them onto a boat with many fearing the worst when on the fifth day their engine broke down.
“This confirms that the new Libya is not safe. Armed groups are exploiting foreigners and acting with impunity,” Jon Hoisaeter, UNHCR Representative to Malta, told The Sunday Times.
The stories told to UNHCR staff by the Malta arrivals exposed a systematic system of exploitation of asylum seekers in Libya.
“Some people approached us in prison and asked us for money to be released and go by boat to Europe. There was no choice; that is the only way to be free,” migrants told the UN staff in Malta.
“If we did not behave they would have beaten us, and left us in prison.”
After paying for release from the prison, the group was held by an armed group for several months in a small compound outside Benghazi.
“It was overcrowded and in terrible condition, especially for the children. People were sleeping outside on mattresses because there was no space inside,” an asylum seeker recounted.
Day and night they could hear firearms, people shooting in the air. One of the men showed the UNHCR his wounded arm, hit by a stray bullet.
One woman was reported to have died in the compound outside Benghazi: “She was very sick. We told the armed men that she needed medicine and a doctor but they would not let her go.”
One year after Muammar Gaddafi’s death, black asylum seekers are still being rounded up and put in Libyan prisons on grounds that they are undocumented and have no permit.
Mr Hoisaeter said the UNHCR had multiple sources on information tallying with the migrants’ claims about Libya, which has still not signed the UN Refugee Convention.
“People have called us with similar claims and separate individuals recounted to us these kinds of stories in interviews. We also have people on the ground in Libya trying to gain access to detention,” he said.
This reality is reflected in a recent Amnesty International report, based on fact-finding visits to Libya between May and September, reiterating that undocumented foreign nationals in Libya are at risk of exploitation, arbitrary and indefinite detention, as well as beatings.”
Mr Hoisaeter said: “The signs we’re seeing are pretty clear. Libya is not a safe place for people seeking protection,” adding that it was now up to the Malta Refugee Commissioner to establish the migrants’ asylum claims.
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Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Nov 19th 2012, 21:32
We have the right not to be inundated with all of Africa's population on this tiny and barren overcrowded 122 square mile island which we call home.
It is about time they fixed their own problems in their huge and resource rich nations instead of bothering everyone else by running away and constantly burdening others.
The Maltese people are suffering Africa fatigue.
Enough is enough.
Lino Agius
Nov 19th 2012, 02:35
It is a sad story to hear ,but is it true .?These prople were put in prison and asked for money to be freed and send to europe .If Libya is as bad as they say ,where was their money kept ,surely not in a bank ,and if it was on their person wouldn,t you think that when they were rouded up and send to prison they woujd be searched
..Why ask for money when you cantake it by force .
James Dewar
Nov 18th 2012, 15:28
Heartwarming to see that the assistance and kindness afforded to Libya by the Maltese during their troubles is being handsomely rewarded.... NOT!
pat muscat
Nov 18th 2012, 14:47
Why does.n.t the UN do something about Libya? And why do these poor souls cross the dangerous Mediterranean sea, and not smaller Red Sea which is bordering their country? After all all middle eastern countries import labour by the millions. If I were an Eritrean or a Somali I would opt to cross the shorter Red Sea into the thriving middle east: that where the money is!
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Nov 18th 2012, 19:37
But that money in the Middle East you have to work for.
Europe is the land of endless freebies and social services.
D Bonello
Nov 18th 2012, 14:37
This is an outrage.....The EU should investigate these claims and if true impose sanctions against Libya. This cannot be tolerated anymore. Further it seems to me that the new government in Libya is not to be trusted.
Ms D. Borg
Nov 18th 2012, 14:10
Well, it's sad to hear their stories (if they are true) but Malta cannot keep on accepting all the illegal immigrants that leave Libya. We are already full up and they're a great burden on our little island.
laurent caruana
Nov 18th 2012, 13:20
To all the intolerant people who usually write when some article regarding black African people is involved I pray for your poor souls
V Cassar
Nov 18th 2012, 16:35
While I pray for your children's future.
James Dimech
Nov 18th 2012, 12:32
So what ? Should we bring all Somalia, Eritrea and Africans in Libya to Malta ?
FRANK MERCIECA
Nov 18th 2012, 12:15
My fellow compatriots...........Haven' t you got a heart !!!!! These sub-saharan people in Libya have got caught in a civil war not of their making........As far as they are concerned the wrong side won, and now they are all in fear of their lives, from Arab gangs. It does not surprise me , as Arabs were the first to use black slaves, hundreds of years before the Europeans.
B. Borg
Nov 18th 2012, 14:12
It’s wrong to think that your fellow Maltese lost their hearts when they are defending their country. Think of the Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians, who were out-numbered by the many Immigrants taking all their land and now, are cornered into small reserves. It's our right to limit the influx, whatever reason is behind.
Malicia Dabrowicz
Nov 18th 2012, 12:15
Louise Vella and of course the concept of human rights is completely alien to you. Pun intended.
Charles Grixti
Nov 18th 2012, 15:06
Well human rights starts with safeguarding our own rights too, especially the right not to be supplanted in our own land. Charity begins at home. Meanwhile the big powers are turning North Africa into a powder keg for their own interests. These people are to a great degree the authors of their own misery, with unchecked population growth, repressive religious creeds and destructive cultures.
Joanne Micallef
Nov 18th 2012, 11:06
I will personally believe these claims after some serious investigative journalism is carried out, if this is true, like in the past some foreign journalist will shed light on what the situation is really like re illegal immigration. Nany have crued wolf before, but journalist feature and reports showed otherwise.
Anthony Paul Naudi
Nov 18th 2012, 10:54
Nispera li l-Gvern jibda jimponi fuq il-Gvern Libjan dwar dan. Hemm hija l-ghajnuna li qed niehdu minghand il-Libjani ghidlu lil Gibril.
A.P.Naudi
Mary Pace
Nov 18th 2012, 10:40
How come did they have money if in prison?
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Nov 18th 2012, 15:17
Good point Mary Pace and why did they not go back to their home nations that are now all war free.
That would have been the logical choice.
Something does not add up with their usual tale of woe.
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Nov 18th 2012, 16:26
Good point Mary Pace and why did they not go back to their home nations that are now all war free.
That would have been the logical choice.
Something does not add up with their usual tale of woe.
Michael Bonello
Nov 18th 2012, 10:34
I think enough is enough it is about time we stand up and say no more
N. Agius
Nov 18th 2012, 10:30
It's a vicious circle, the more we help, the more immigrants the human traffickers will send. EU should work not on EU territory to fight these human traffickers but on the African continent itself. There is no other solution except to nip at the bud.
Mr Mike Farrugia
Nov 18th 2012, 10:09
How do we know that these people are not mercenaries left over from last years conflict?
carlos ellul
Nov 18th 2012, 10:02
We all know how immigrants describe malta, so lets take things with a pinch of salt. However i agree libya owe us enough to keep immigrants safe and away from our shores. Its a rich country which can integrate alot of immigrants
Paul Caruana
Nov 18th 2012, 09:59
Basically, Libya is awash in illegal migrants as a results of Ghaddafi's "let's make Europe Black" policy, by his active encouragement of illegal migration from his shores to ours.
As far as the new regime is concerned, the way to get rid of the problem is to coerce these illegal migrants onto a boat and sent them off in our general direction. We had better brace ourselves for the worst.!
ALBERT FENECH
Nov 18th 2012, 09:45
Payback time by Benghazi and Libya for Malta more in the line of making them neighbours from hell. Over the last two days it appears too that Libya has supplied the Palestinians Hamas with missiles to fire into Israel with Tunisia also taking a frontline profile in Palestine. Nice to know what the neighbours are getting up to.
ALBERT FENECH
Robert Callus
Nov 18th 2012, 09:34
I was very enthusiastic about helping Libya and considering the brutality of the Gaddafi regime, I still am.
However Libya must get a grip on this issue. Democray is not just having elections. Among many other things it needs to respect the rights of minorities. Including signing the Geneva Convention.
Alfred J. McEwen
Nov 18th 2012, 10:19
How can you get a rabble toting guns sign any conventions let alone the Geneva Convention. Libya is a basket case filled with different groups having their own agendas, one of which is human trafficking, furhermore certain so-called ``do-gooder`` organisations are in cahoots with them.
Robert Callus
Nov 18th 2012, 10:33
i'm not saying it's easy and will happen overnight but they can start working on it, allow the UNHCR back in and put some basic structures in place.
As for your allegations on organizations in cahoots with the gunmen or the human traffickers, I never heard of them. Any evidence? (Non- Libyan organizations I assume)
Alfred J. McEwen
Nov 18th 2012, 15:17
Non Libyan organisations naturally
anthony sultana
Nov 18th 2012, 09:31
People with trouble in their own and other countries want to come and settle in the EU, which is our tiny island to start with,very nice indeed.
Anthony A. Mifsud
Nov 18th 2012, 09:51
Very tue! Who's fault is it? I simply blame who ever made the deal in the first place, as we should have retained the same status as England, out of shangan .....
Ninu
J Martinelli
Nov 18th 2012, 14:59
@ Anthony A Mifsud
Why can't you stay out of topics obviously beyond your expertise?
"...England, out of shangan ....."? I suppose you mean the Shengen area?
Shengen area countries are located within Europe which is not where these immigrants come from. Do you assume that England does not have an 'illegal immigrants' problem of its own, in spite of not being in the Shengen group?
P. Attard
Nov 18th 2012, 09:23
Quote; "Libya is not a safe place for people seeking protection" , and I suggest to the UNHCR to take these people somewhere else, because now we are really full to capacity and fed up with this situation!
Louise Vella
Nov 18th 2012, 09:14
UNHCR representative in Malta, Norwegian Mr Hoisaeter, is obviously interfering in the Maltese Refugee Commissioner's work and trying to prejudge his decisions. He tries to lend credibility to unnamed illegal immigrants trying to advance their interests, ie, get refugee status.
Please choose the reason of your report below: