By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 16 July 2014:
The European Union has funded a €2.4-million programme to address protection needs of vulnerable, marginalised and . . .[restrict]at-risk groups in Libya, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) such as the Tawerghans. The programme aims to provide increased access to psychosocial rehabilitation and socioeconomic integration.
British EU MEP Jacqueline Foster, in a letter shared with the Libya Herald by the Tawergha Foundation, affirmed the European Union’s, and especially her own country’s, support of efforts to address the problems of the Tawerghans who were ejected from their home town after the revolution.
Tawergha, today a ghost town some 38 kilometres outside of Misrata, was the home of the dark-skinned Tawerghan people until just after the revolution. Accused of supporting Qaddafi during the war in its siege of Misrata, the community was subjected to an ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by the Misratans. The Tawarghans have not been able to return to their homes since.
Of the estimated 63,985 IDPs in Libya as of 15 May 2014, some half are Tawerghans. Tawergha residents at refugee camps have long-complained of humanitarian and security issues they say they face on a daily basis. The Tawergha Foundation is one the main organizations working to address the needs of Tawerghans and seeking redress for them.
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