The EU’s proposal to destroy smugglers’ boats in Libya would “effectively contribute” to migrants and refugees “being trapped” and expose them to human rights abuses, according to Amnesty International.

The international human rights watchdog yesterday warned that combating organised crime and smuggling in Libya, without allowing thousands of migrants to access a safe place, was “grossly inadequate”.

In a damning report published yesterday entitled Libya is full of cruelty, Amnesty International appealed to the international community to “dramatically” expand search and rescue operations and take “effective” steps to address human rights abuses.

The Amnesty International report.

The number of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe this year is dramatic. More than 1,700 people are believed to have died, prompting EU leaders to make a series of proposals, including targeting smugglers’ boats.

Amnesty called for EU governments to increase the number of resettlement places, humanitarian admissions and visas for people in need of international protection. It also urged EU leaders to urgently deploy ships along the main migration routes especially where most calls of assistance come from  about 40 nautical miles from the Libyan coast.

The migrants’ stories chronicled in the Amnesty report are shocking, others disturbing. A Nigerian woman who fled Libya in August 2014 described to Amnesty how she was gang raped while waiting to be picked up by a friend. A gang of young armed robbers forced her and her husband into their car.

“They took us to a far place outside the city in the desert: tied my husband’s hands and legs to a pole and gang raped me in front of his eyes. There were 11 men in total.”

Her account is not unique. The report is based on 70 interviews conducted with migrants who crossed or attempted to cross the Mediterranean sea from Libya from August 2014 to March 2015.

Smugglers even prevent passengers from taking their own life jackets on board

All stories tally and irregular travellers report widespread abuses by armed groups, smugglers, traffickers and organised criminal groups in Libya. Most go through abductions for ransom, torture at immigration detention centres, rape and sexual violence.

“Some women don’t have the money to pay the ransom... at night the smuggler would call the name of a woman he liked. If they refused to come out, he would force her,” said one witness.

According to testimonies, smugglers usually ask for a ransom of between $4,000 and $5,000. They subject migrants to beatings with sticks, stones, rifle butts and knives to coerce them and their families into paying the requested sum.

“They all have weapons. They catch you and tell you that you have to pay money or else you will never get out,” one migrant recounted.

As violence continues in Libya, neighbouring countries Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt have sealed off their borders and imposed more stringent entry requirements.

Amnesty called on them to keep their borders open: migrants who cannot obtain valid visas, who have had their passports stolen from them are often left with no viable alternative but to embark on the dangerous sea route to Europe.

Smugglers overload boats, and fail to provide a captain to man them or to load sufficient fuel. They even prevent passengers from taking their own life jackets on board.

Even getting to the boat is perilous. A Syrian woman who travelled with her 10-year old sister said: “On the day of the crossing they took us to the beach in refrigerator trucks. They were taking us around 35 at a time so that no one would see us. There was not enough air or ventilation. Two children were starting to suffocate and stopped breathing... we were banging on the walls but the driver would not stop...”

The scale and gravity of human rights abuses and violations have increased in Libya since mid-2014. Even established communities of refugees and migrants who have been working and residing in Libya for several years have started to leave by boat as their lives have increasingly become endangered by conflict. Religious minorities, in particular Christian migrants and refugees “are at the highest risk of abuses” including abductions, torture and other ill-treatment and unlawful killings, the report says.