Tripoli, 21 March 2014:
The British Ambassador to Libya, Michael Aron, has urged the government to ensure that migrants rights are fully met, after seeing “extremely challenging” conditions faced by migrants in detention centres.
“Improving migrant documentation would be a first step to tackle the problem, along with improving the asylum process,” Aron said, after visiting the Surman detention centre for women and children. “I encourage the Libyan Government to address these issues and ensure that migrant rights are met.”
Aron said that conditions in the detention centre were extremely challenging, with poor sanitation, a lack of healthcare and overcrowding.
“I met six inspirational women who had been forced to give birth inside the centre without any medical care,” he said. “It is common for hospitals refuse to help migrants who, they believe, spread disease.” He added that women he spoke to in the centre said they just wanted to work, to improve the lives of their families.
He said that long-term detentions in the centres were also cause for concern.
Libya is routinely used as a staging post for migrants hoping to reach Europe but many people from other African countries come to Libya looking for job opportunities.
The Libyan authorities claim many of these work illegally. Migrant workers are routinely stopped in the capital by security personnel and taken to holding centres to undergo paperwork and health checks, as in the case of a group of Egyptians last week.
If there are problems with migrants’ paperwork or health, they are transferred to detention centres, pending deportation. [/restrict]
