UN High Commissioner Denounces Impunity and Arbitrary Detentions in Libya
UN Human Rights High Comisioneer, Volker Türk, July 2024 Photo: EFE
July 9, 2024 Hour: 9:07 pm
«Trafficking, torture, forced labour, extortion, hunger in intolerable conditions of detention are perpetrated on a large scale with impunity», warned Türk.
From the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN) in Geneva and in the face of the tense situation of migrants and refugees tortured, trafficked and sold in Libya, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk asked the international community to consider the possibility of declaring the end of the agreement with the North African nation regarding asylum and migration applications.
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«Trafficking, torture, forced labour, extortion, hunger in intolerable conditions of detention are perpetrated on a large scale with impunity», warned Türk.
Mass expulsions and the sale of human beings, including children, are widespread in Libya,” he added, while stressing that there is collusion between State and non-State actors.
According to the UN, the High Commissioner also referred to the discovery last March of a mass grave in south-west Libya, which contained 65 bodies of alleged migrants.
«If this were not horrible enough, we are following up on reports of another mass grave recently discovered in the desert area of the border between Libya and Tunisia (…) The loved ones of those who died have every right to know the truth», stressed.
Also, the high official requested a review of the old agreement between the European Union and the Libyan authorities, aimed at analyzing actions intercepting migrants seeking to reach Europe through the Mediterranean Sea.
On the numbers of migrants killed, Türk said that since April 2023 and to date, “more than 2,400 people died or disappeared trying to cross the central Mediterranean”. Of that group, “more than 1,300 left Libya,” Türk said.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: UN
