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Amnesty International called on the Libyan authorities to release immigrants and refugees, including more than 200 children.
According to United Nations statistics, the number of immigrants and refugees detained in a mass crackdown in western Libya has exceeded 5,000, including hundreds of women and children.
The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) told the Associated Press on Monday that among the detainees, there were 215 children and more than 540 women, and at least 30 of them were pregnant.
The UN agency counted 5,152 immigrants Detained in a raid Since Friday, the number may increase as the crackdown continues in the western town of Gargaresh, which is a major immigration center for North African countries and the entire region.
Amnesty International’s Libyan and Egyptian activist Hussein Baomi told Al Jazeera that the arrested persons had been taken to Tripoli’s Al-Mabani and Shara’ al-Zawiya detention centers and complained about inhumane conditions and extreme overcrowding. .
“The people we interviewed must use a rotation system to sleep, some people will stand, some people sleep,” Baomi said.
The organization received videos of guards beating detainees with sticks and water pipes, and received complaints that people were not getting enough food.
At least two women who spoke to Amnesty International reported sexual harassment. One of them said that she was forced to undress in the detention center.
According to the organization, the crackdown was carried out by the “Public Security” militia group led by the former Deputy Director of the Libyan Intelligence Agency Emad al-Trabulsi and the “Security Agency Support Force”. Both groups are related to the Libyan Ministry of Interior.
The authorities described it as a security campaign against undocumented immigrants and drug trafficking, but the Ministry of the Interior, which led the crackdown, did not mention arresting traffickers or smugglers.
Amnesty International calls on the Libyan authorities to charge anyone who committed the crime alone and to release innocent people, including more than 200 children.
Many of those arrested have been registered with the UN refugee agency, which means they have been identified as refugees or asylum seekers.
“These people are fleeing persecution in their country of origin and should be protected, not imprisoned,” Baomi said.
The United Nations received a report that a young immigrant was shot and killed. Five other people sustained gunshot wounds, two of them in the intensive care unit. It also received reports that communications were closed and individuals were unable to obtain information and seek help.
The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Georgette Gagnon, said in a statement on Saturday that “unarmed immigrants have been harassed, beaten and shot dead at home.”
“Most of those arrested are now being arbitrarily detained, including in the detention facilities operated by the Office of Combating Illegal Immigration at the Ministry of the Interior,” Gagnon said.
In 2020, the Libyan authorities legalized informal places of detention by incorporating them into the official immigration detention infrastructure under the control of the Department of the Interior’s Department for Combating Illegal Immigration (DCIM).
According to human rights monitoring agencies, thousands of refugees and immigrants are arbitrarily detained in these centers and subjected to torture, sexual violence, and other ill-treatment with impunity.
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