Thousands of asylum seekers are being detained and tortured in Libya where the political conflict has brought widespread destruction and civilian death, according to a human rights report.
“At the time of writing, Libyan authorities held between 5,000 and 10,000 asylum seekers in detention facilities where they face torture and other abuses, including overcrowding, dire sanitation, lack of access to adequate medical care and inhuman or degrading treatment.
“Guards subjected migrants and asylum seekers to beatings, whippings, cigarette burns and electric shocks,” Human Rights Watch said in its 656-page report.
The report, which reviews human rights practices around the globe, was released just two days after at least 14 people were killed in a terrorist attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli.
Split between two rival parliaments controlling the west and the east, the North African country has been sliding into deeper instability over the past months.
The human rights report notes that the conflict has caused widespread destruction and civilian deaths. About 400,000 were internally displaced and another 150,000 people, including foreigners, fled the country.
“Record numbers of migrants embarked on the perilous sea journey from Libya to Europe with 60,000 reaching Italy alone in 2014. The Italian navy’s rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, rescued about 100,000 from unseaworthy boats but at least 3,000 still perished at sea,” it adds.
Referring to the EU’s response to the growing numbers of arriving migrants as “disappointing”, the organisation said efforts were largely focused on border enforcement and the prevention of departures.
The report also comments on the reception conditions in Malta. The UN human rights committee in October expressed concern over automatic, lengthy detention of migrants on the island.
“Malta continued to detain migrant children whose age is disputed despite a pledge in March to end immigration detention of children,” the report says.
It notes that, by mid-November, about 155,000 people had reached EU shores, primarily in Italy, but also Malta, Greece, Spain and Cyprus.
The report is Human Rights Watch’s 25th annual review and summarises key issues in more than 90 countries and territories.
It draws on events from the end of 2013 through November 2014.
In a statement, the organisation said EU leaders in 2014 were too often willing to sideline human rights at home when convenient, in a year marked by successes for populist and Eurosceptic parties.
“Europe is still a place of exclusion, discrimination and suffering for so many. Until EU leaders are prepared to consistently act in accordance with the union’s stated values, that picture isn’t going to change.”