FOUR MIGRANTS DIE AT LIBYAN REFUGEE CENTRE IN SIX WEEKS

▶ Grim picture of life at camp that has become notorious for its lack of food, medical treatment and sanitation

Four young refugees have died in Libya’s Zintan migrant detention centre since the middle of last month, according to detainees who say very poor conditions, including a lack of food, medicine and sanitation, led to the deaths.

The fatalities included a 22-year-old Eritrean man, who died last weekend.

Most of the refugees detained in centres run by Libya’s Department for Combating Illegal Immigration were returned to Libya by the EU-backed coastguard, after trying to reach Europe this year.

The centre in Zintan, 180 kilometres south-west of Tripoli, was one of the locations to which the UN Refugee Agency moved migrants after clashes in the capital in August. Nearly 1,400 refugees and migrants were being held there in September, the agency said.

“At this detention centre, we are almost forgotten,” a detainee there said on Wednesday.

Other aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, at the time criticised the decision to move detainees from Tripoli.

“Transferring detainees from one detention centre to another in the same conflict zone cannot be described as an evacuation and it is certainly not a solution,” said Ibrahim Younis, Doctors Without Borders’ Libya head of mission.

“The resources and mechanisms exist to bring these people to third countries where their claims for asylum or repatriation can be duly processed. That’s what needs to happen right now, without delay. This is about saving lives.”

UNHCR could not confirm the reports, but special envoy for the Central Mediterranean, Vincent Cochetel, said: “I am saddened by the news of the alleged death of migrants and refugees in detention.

“Renewed efforts must be made by the Libyan authorities to provide alternatives to detention, to ensure that people are not detained arbitrarily and benefit from the legal safeguards and standards of treatment in the Libyan legislation and relevant international instruments Libya is party to.”

The International Organisation for Migration, which also works in Libya, did not respond to a request for comment. DCIM was not reachable.

Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have been locked in indefinite detention by Libyan authorities since Italy and Libya struck a deal in February last year, aimed at stopping Africans from reaching Europe across the Mediterranean.

People in the centres are consistently deprived of food and water, according to more than a dozen detainees in touch with The National from centres across Tripoli. One centre holding more than 200 people has handed out no food for the past eight days, according to a man being held there.

Sanitation facilities are poor and severe overcrowding is common. Although the majority of detainees are teenagers or in their twenties, many suffer from health problems caused by the conditions.

Aid agencies and researchers in Libya say the lack of a centralised system for detainees makes it impossible to track the fatalities in centres.

This month, a man in his twenties died in Triq Al Sikka detention centre in Tripoli, from an illness that was either caused or made worse by the conditions in the centre, as well as a lack of medical attention, according to two detainees.

One detainee in Triq Al Sikka told The National that six others had died there this year, two after being taken to hospital and the rest in the centre.

Another former detainee from the same centre said he believes the death toll is much higher.

The deaths raise questions about the EU policy of funding the Libyan coastguard to intercept migrant boats and bring them back.

This year, European leaders have repeatedly spoken about how this policy is decreasing the numbers of deaths in the Mediterranean.

However, most of those who are returned to Libya are locked up in indefinite detention, in extremely poor conditions that fuel the spread of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

“They say this decreases the number of deaths happening in the Mediterranean Sea, but they forgot the number dying in several detention centres,” an Eritrean detainee told