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From: IRIN <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 7:49 PM
Subject: LIBYA: Sub-Saharan migrants keep their heads down
To: Jean-Francois Darcq <[email protected]>
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*LIBYA: Sub-Saharan migrants keep their heads
down<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93763>
*
[image: lead photo]SIDI BILAL, 20 September 2011 (IRIN) - In an abandoned
port on the outskirts of Tripoli, a young woman timidly peeks out from
behind the blanket that forms a wall in her improvised home. She is one of
hundreds of migrants who have gathered in this makeshift camp since a
popular uprising to overthrow dictator Muammar Gaddafi spread to the Libyan
capital in August.
The migrants see strength in numbers and hope they can escape the arbitrary
detentions, arrests and beatings that many of their fellow migrants have
been subjected to.
Racism against blacks has a long history in Libya, but has been a particular
problem for sub-Saharan migrants - nationals from countries like Chad,
Niger, Sudan, Senegal, Mali and Nigeria - since the uprising began in
February. Rebels who fought for Gaddafi's ouster accused him of using black
African mercenaries to help quell the uprising.
Since then, the rebels or their supporters - there's no chain of command or
uniform to identify them absolutely - have arbitrarily arrested, robbed
and/or beaten hundreds of migrants, according to testimonies from fleeing
migrants, and reports by human rights
organizations<http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE19/025/2011/en>and
journalists. Many migrants have had their money, mobile phones and
passports taken.
Despite urging restraint on the part of its supporters, the rebel
movement-turned-incoming-government (the ruling National Transitional
Council or NTC) has been criticized for not doing enough to halt incidents
of racial violence and arbitrary detention. One rebel told IRIN: "If we see
black skin, we'll arrest them and give them to the NTC."
*Seeking refuge*
In this camp in Sidi Bilal, 35km west of Tripoli, the migrants are seeking
shelter in abandoned boats, hanging blankets from the hulls to create
makeshift walls. When armed rebels come to the area, the migrants retreat to
their improvised homes. They fear rape or more arrests. One migrant told
IRIN the armed men "beat the hell out of" them.
Médecins Sans Frontières brings fresh water to the camp. Some locals donate
food for the migrants to cook; local children sell them chickens and
cigarettes. There is just one toilet in a nearby building.
This is just one of several camps made up of migrants who do not have the
means to go back home, despite a hostile environment here. Some of those who
are able to return have faced their own difficulties in their home
countries. Others are still trying to get out of Libya, in what the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) still considers an emergency
situation.
[See: CHAD-NIGER: Lean season awaits migrants escaping
Libya<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93769>
]
Libya's sub-Saharan migrants View
slideshow<http://www.irinnews.org/photo/Default.aspx?id=31> Having
already helped with the evacuation of thousands of migrants, the IOM is
still looking to reach vulnerable communities in areas like Sebha, 650km
southwest of Tripoli, still reportedly controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.
According to the IOM, Chadians, Nigeriens, Nigerians and others have sought
protection at the IOM centre in Sebha, but with no electricity, fuel, and
little food or water, the situation is becoming increasingly difficult. "The
migrants are very scared and threatened," said IOM Chief of Mission for Chad
Qasim Sufi in a communiqué.
*Racism past and present*
Concern over violence and discrimination towards darker-skinned Libyans and
sub-Saharan African migrants has been mounting since the early stages of the
conflict in Libya.
While Col Gaddafi and his loyalists were accused early on of pushing a
xenophobic message, accusing rebels from the outset of being controlled by
"non-Libyan" elements and religious extremists, the reputation of the NTC
has been badly tainted by charges of racism.
Well before the outbreak of hostilities in Libya in February 2011, there
were long-standing reports of Gaddafi's use of Chadian soldiers, Tuareg
warriors from northwest Africa, and other non-Libyan combatants, within the
Libyan military, notably the Khamis Brigade, fronted by one of Gaddafi's
sons. There have also been reports of over 500 soldiers from the Western
Saharan Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro
(POLISARIO) being detained by the NTC, accused of being mercenaries in the
pay of Gaddafi. NTC supporters have persistently maintained that such
elements played a leading role in checking the rebel advance, providing
Gaddafi with a last line of defence.
Human rights campaigners and media commentators in sub-Saharan Africa have
pointed out that incidents of extreme racism are nothing new in Libya. The
testimonies of prisoners and fleeing migrants carry strong echoes of those
who fled Libya in 2000 after over 130 people, mainly from West African
countries, were killed in outbreaks of what appeared to be
ethnically-motivated violence. Gaddafi's administration was accused of being
at best negligent, at worst complicit, while Gaddafi himself was denounced
for preaching pan-African brotherhood abroad while presiding over racial
pogroms at home.
Since the early 1980s, large migrant populations from both Libya's immediate
neighbours, Chad and Niger, have been joined in Libya by thousands more from
countries like Senegal, Mali, Niger and Ghana.
The influx coincided with a period of international isolation, Gaddafi
playing his self-created role as a champion of African unity against a
background of sanctions and strained relations with many of his Arab
counterparts. Libya was heavily involved in the Community of Sahel-Saharan
states (CEN-SAD), which preached regional solidarity and stressed a
commitment to the free movement of persons and goods. Libya became both a
crucial stepping-off point for migrants heading to southern Europe, notably
Italy, but also a destination in its own right, particularly for those
seeking job opportunities in a fast-expanding economy, taking on both mainly
unskilled jobs or finding openings in the informal sector.
According to Jen-Philippe Chauzy, spokesman for the IOM, migrant workers
were drawn to Libya for economic reasons, but tended to live on the margins.
"The migrants faced enormous difficulties in Libya prior to the crisis,"
Chauzy told IRIN. He pointed out that the vast majority of sub-Saharan
Africans were in Libya as undocumented migrants. "They were hired and fired
by the day, trying their best to survive economically." Most immigrants from
sub-Saharan Africa were smuggled into Libya illegally, not registering with
their embassies, inevitably vulnerable to exploitation, said Chauzy.
*The clampdown climate*
While the Libyan authorities were fairly lax on definitions of legal and
illegal immigration, there were several waves of deportations. In both 1995
and 2008, the Libyan government announced its intention to expel one million
immigrants. While those targets were not reached, Libya faced mounting
criticism for its treatment of refugees. In its World Refugee Survey for
2009, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants noted the existence of 10
detention camps for illegal migrants.
Libya was accused by human rights organizations of currying favour with
Italy and other European states in clamping down on illegal immigration,
often using brutal methods. Concerns were also raised about growing racism
and the stigmatization of immigrant communities accused of involvement in
crime and spreading HIV/AIDS.
Chauzy said much more needed to be done to support reintegration programmes
for migrants returning to countries like Niger and Chad in the current
context, noting that families were now adapting to living without
remittances sent from Libya, which played a key role in sustaining family
budgets. "These countries are being left alone to bear the burden of the
Libyan crisis," Chauzy warned.
jr/cs/ha/aj/cb
Read report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93763>
------------------------------
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