Quelle: The Guardian
A fatal breakout at a detention centre highlights a failing system as operations are under way to frustrate smuggler gangs
Tension had been growing for months about Libya’s al-Nasr migrant detention centre in Zawiya, filled to bursting with those captured while trying to embark to Europe from nearby beaches.
Earlier this month the tension boiled over. More than 200 inmates staged a mass breakout and, in the panic, guards opened fire, scything down escapees with machine guns. When the smoke cleared, four migrants were dead and 20 more wounded, along with one guard.
“The situation at detention centres is horrific. Migrants are left to their own devices,” says Mark Micallef, of Migrant Report, which first broke news of the killings. He visited a nearby centre in December and says he could feel the tension: “I had never been to a detention centre that was so crowded.”