Discussing irregular migration is relatively easy but discussing irregular migrants is – or at least should be – difficult and painful. The reason is simple. ‘Irregular migration’ is an issue but irregular migrants are people. Issues do not sweat or cry or die. People do.
This is a key point that should be kept in mind every time we are tempted to discuss migration and not migrants.
Amnesty International has just published a 31-page report titled: “’Libya is Full of Cruelty’ – Stories of Abduction, Sexual Violence and Abuse from Migrants and Refugees.” (Just google the name of the report and you can download it and read it.) It brings together the testimonies of 70 migrants in Sicily and in Tunisia between August 2014 and March 2015.
The report makes for chilling reading. It reports how foreign nationals travelling irregularly from Libya face abuses, including abductions for ransom, torture and other ill-treatment. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are very common.
Most of the time, the immigrants fleeing persecution in their countries land from the frying pan into the fire. Upon entry in Libya instead of welcoming hands they find criminal groups waiting for them. At times, the smugglers themselves hold the migrants and refugees in remote areas in the desert forcing them to call their families to pay a ransom.
Christina Chetcuti penned a moving summary of the report in today’s Times of Malta. I will not repeat what she wrote as it is easily accessible. I will however highlight that aspect of the report which states that religious persecution is a key factor driving Middle Eastern and African Christians to risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean in the hopes of reaching Europe.
The Pope has lamented that the persecution of Christians is not being given the media coverage it deserves. To their credit, Amnesty International, are redressing this lack of adequate reportage.
Amnesty International warned that Christians from Nigeria, Eritrea, Egypt and Ethiopia were at particular risk amid the widespread abuses by armed groups, traffickers and gangs exploiting the “chaos and lawlessness” of Libya.
Christian migrants and refugees, “are at highest risk of abuses, including abductions, torture and other ill-treatment and unlawful killings, from armed groups that seek to enforce their own interpretation of Islamic law and have been responsible for serious human rights abuses.”
The report also documents the widespread discrimination and persecution that Christians face from their employers, criminal groups and in immigration detention centres. Their fate is made more difficult because of the closeness of several armed groups to IS.
Just a couple of examples follow.
“Libya is a country where Christians shouldn’t come. Any Libyan boss will ask you if you are Muslim or Christian. If you say you are Christian, then you are in trouble. He will not pay you. He will beat you more if you complain about anything.” This was the experience of a Nigerian man that came to Libya looking for work.
The Muslim guards at the Sabaratah detention centre prevent Christians from praying. “They would come with hoses and would threaten us with beatings if we don’t stop praying. Sometimes they would beat us.”
Another Nigerian man told Amnesty International:
“They would come steal our money and flog us. I can’t complain to the police about the Christian issue because they don’t like us… In October 2014 four men kidnapped me… because they saw I was carrying a bible,” he said.
Most recently a total of at least 49 Christians, mostly from Egypt and Ethiopia were beheaded and shot in three mass summary killings claimed by the group calling itself the Islamic State (IS). Yesterday (May 11) the Pope referred to these and other Christians who are being martyred “in the name of God.”
The Pope said that “today we are seeing those who kill Christians in the name of God because they think they are not believers.”
“I was remembering the faithful of [the Coptic Orthodox] Church who were slain on the beach because they were Christians,” the Pope continued. “Thanks to the strength given them by the Holy Spirit they died with the name of Jesus on their lips. This is the strength of the Spirit. The testimony. Martyrdom is the supreme testimony.”