U.N. assisting thousands of migrants in Libyan smuggling hub

[webfact]

U.N. assisting thousands of migrants in Libyan smuggling hub

By Aidan Lewis and Ahmed Elumami

 

Migrants walk to a detention center run by the interior ministry of Libya's eastern-based government, in Benghazi, Libya October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori

 

TUNIS/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.N. agencies said on Monday they were trying to provide urgent help to large numbers of migrants held and then stranded in the smuggling hub of Sabratha as rival factions battled for control of the city.

 

At least 4,000 migrants, including pregnant women, newborn babies and unaccompanied children, have been transferred from informal camps and housing to a hangar in the city since the clashes ended on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said some 6,000 had been held at the informal sites.

 

Hundreds of migrants who had left Sabratha arrived in Zuwara, about 25 km (15 miles) to the west, on foot along the beach, said Sadeeq Al-Jayash, head of Zuwara's emergency committee.

 

"They come walking in groups ... for example there were various groups that came on Sunday -- 50, then 100 and 200 at night," said Jayash. There were about 1,700 migrants currently in Zuwara "in desperate need of help", he said.

 

Sabratha has been the most common point of departure for mostly sub-Saharan African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat from Libya.

 

But the number of crossings dropped sharply in July after an armed group struck a deal with officials from the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli to block departures, under pressure from Italy and other European Union member states.

 

That set off three weeks of fighting among rival factions that left at least 43 dead and 340 wounded, according to a new health ministry toll, and ended with the withdrawal of the armed group. The migrants who have since been rounded up were being held at sites that the group had controlled, local officials said.

 

"We are seriously concerned by the large number of migrants caught up in recent developments in Sabratha," Othman Belbeisi, IOM Libya chief of mission, said in a statement.

 

Some migrants are being sent on to detention centres elsewhere in western Libya that are nominally under the control of the Tripoli government.

 

IOM officials say those centres, which were housing some 5,000 migrants, risk being overwhelmed by the new arrivals. Conditions in the centres are often dire and abuse widespread.

 

"Alternatives to detention must be found for migrants in Libya. In the meantime, IOM continues to provide direct humanitarian, health and psychosocial assistance to meet the urgent needs of the thousands of migrants being affected," Belbeisi said.

 

Local sources have previously said that an estimated 10,000 migrants were being held in the Sabratha area.

 

The head of Sabratha's department for countering illegal migration told Reuters on Saturday that help was badly needed as some migrants had received no food or water for six days.

 

The UNHCR said it had approached Libyan authorities to ensure that refugees among the migrants were freed from detention.

 

(Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-10

[LannaGuy]

Well we nearly went a day with no 'Hub' but now Libya has one!  I thought 'Hubs' were only in Thailand.

Edited October 10, 2017 by LannaGuy

[nausea]

4 hours ago, LannaGuy said:

Well we nearly went a day with no 'Hub'

Beat me to it; when you've been in Thailand a while you get a sort of Pavlovian reaction to the word "hub".

[boomerangutang]

If you had asked me, 40 yrs ago, when such things would happen, I would have said 120 years in the future.  I would have been wrong.

 

Overpopulation + dearth of resources = big problems we're seeing today.  The situations in Rakhine State and Libyan coast are but two of many trouble spots.  Only bad can come of it.  

 

Here's what should be done:  

>>>   free contraceptive for anyone who wants it

>>>   free tube tying for any man or woman over 20 who requests it (with prior counseling). 

>>>   suicide pills for whomever, over the age of 50, who makes that choice (with prior counseling).

 

No leaders are currently brave enough to broach these issues.  It's like if there was a wooden dormitory building housing 250 people.  A fire got going in the basement, but no one in the building wants to address the issue.  "Don't talk about it, and it therefore won't exist."

 

 

[dick dasterdly]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

At least 4,000 migrants, including pregnant women, newborn babies and unaccompanied children, have been transferred from informal camps and housing to a hangar in the city since the clashes ended on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

It probably would have been better if the 'photo included some of the "including pregnant women, newborn babies and unaccompanied children" - rather than only men.

[dick dasterdly]

It's not that I have no sympathy for the young/old men caught up in this disaster - but in the same way 'hub' nowadays results in a 'twitch', I'm getting the same 'twitch' when women and particularly "children" (with no justification) are used.....

[BuaBS]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

"We are seriously concerned by the large number of migrants caught up in recent developments in Sabratha," Othman Belbeisi, IOM Libya chief of mission, said in a statement.

Well send them back to their country . Simple .

[KBsinter]

37 minutes ago, BuaBS said:

Well send them back to their country . Simple .

To easy, ........................lol

[boomerangutang]

It's a humanitarian crises waiting to explode. 

 

Literally warehousing thousands of people in a region where locals can't even grow vegetables.  Fresh water is at a premium, if available at all.  Locals don't want them there, and can't afford to house/feed them, even if they wanted to.  The only succor comes from Europeans, most prominently; the Italian government.  Every week, hundreds, maybe thousands more migrants show up - all needing/expecting housing, food, water, medicine.    A bad situation, getting worse.

 

 

[dundee48]

14 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

It probably would have been better if the 'photo included some of the "including pregnant women, newborn babies and unaccompanied children" - rather than only men.

2 pregnant women,3 newborn babies,5 unaccompanied children and 3,990 fighting age men.

[halloween]

While it is natural to want to help those in dire need, in doing so the UN is encouraging those who take the risk of illegal migration.

[simple1]

13 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

It's a humanitarian crises waiting to explode. 

 

Literally warehousing thousands of people in a region where locals can't even grow vegetables.  Fresh water is at a premium, if available at all.  Locals don't want them there, and can't afford to house/feed them, even if they wanted to.  The only succor comes from Europeans, most prominently; the Italian government.  Every week, hundreds, maybe thousands more migrants show up - all needing/expecting housing, food, water, medicine.    A bad situation, getting worse.

 

Plenty of fresh water available in Libya for irrigation, the water pipeline infrastructure project was destroyed by NATO bombing in 2011. 

 

As to others saying return 'them' to their home countries - simple... On this forum it has repeatedly been advised in similar topics, such action requires government to government co-operation and most times forcible deportation is not accepted by home nation countries. 

 

Within this topic it has been wilfully ignored that armed human traffickers mentioned in the OP in Libya extort, rape and torture those in their custody; women and children would be segregated for 'special attention'. Some members of this forum constantly scrape the bottom of the barrel in their vilification and wilful ignorance of some of the most disenfranchised people in the world.

[boomerangutang]

Some regions which are relatively unscathed in regard to mass migrations and overpopulation:

Note: these are regions which will likely fare better in the 22nd century (also considering global warming):

 

NZ, Canada, Iceland, Siberia, Greenland, Australia, Oceana, Alaska, Patagonia, Antarctica, northern parts of Scandinavia, northern parts of US midwest.

 

So there is hope for our species, though it's a flicker.

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by boomerangutang

[roobaa01]

they are there because they want to be there for only one reason better life in europe. hence what it is there own responsibility .

thus the response to be the aussie way.

 

wbr

roobaa01

[Ron19]

An answer to a removed post has been removed