Migrant centre ‘severely overcrowded:’ UN
TRIPOLI: The United Nations said its centre in the Libyan capital for migrants singled out as “most vulnerable” was overcrowded and appealed for third countries to take in more refugees.
“UNHCR continues to call for more slots for resetlement, evacuations,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
It said the refugee organisation’s centre in Tripoli was “severely overcrowded”, housing 1,000 people rather than its capacity of 700 places.
“The infrastructure and services at the GDF (Gathering and Departure Facility) are stretched thin, with deteriorating living conditions that may lead to an unsustainable situation,” it warned.
The GDF, set up in December 2018, has been overstretched since a July 3 air strike that killed 53 people at a detention centre for migrants in the eastern suburb of Tajoura.
Following the strike, more than 400 people kept at that centre arrived to the GDF by foot, the UNHCR said.
Libya, despite being wracked by chaos and conflict since the 2011 uprising that killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi, has remained a major transit route for migrants, especially from subsaharan Africa.
Freshly transferred from a packed camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, some migrants say conditions in their new home on the mainland are even worse.
“We let Moria hoping for something beter,” said Sazan, a 20-year-old Afghan, referring to the main camp on Lesbos.
“And in the end, it’s worse.”
Sazan is one of around 1,000 Afghans ferried in from Lesbos -- where conditions had become increasingly unsanitary and unsafe -- to the mainland.
Ater six months of what he described as “hell” in Moria, Sazan said he had hoped for beter.
But at the Nea Kavala camp near the major northern port city of Thessaloniki, new arrivals complain of lack of access to basics such as water and electricity, he said.
Staff at the camp are struggling to find enough tents and to put basic facilities in place.
There were currently only 200 tents for 1,000 people, a source at the citizen protection ministry said. Other migrants ferried off Lesbos would be transferred to other camps, the source said.