Welt | 26.05.2018
Von Schleusern gejagt und beschossen – mindestens 15 Migranten tot
Nach Angaben von Ärzte ohne Grenzen sind rund 100 Menschen bei der Flucht aus einem Geheimgefängnis im Nordwesten Libyens von Menschenschmugglern angegriffen worden. Die Hilfsorganisation beklagt den „andauernden Horror“.
Zahlreiche Migranten im Nordwesten Libyens sind laut Ärzte ohne Grenzen von Menschenschmugglern getötet worden. Rund 100 Opfer seien bei dem Versuch, aus einem Geheimgefängnis in Bani Walid zu fliehen, von Schleusern gejagt und beschossen worden, teilte die Hilfsorganisation am Freitag mit.
Zwar hätten Anwohner der Stadt die Flüchtlinge zu beschützen versucht. Doch hätten Überlebende des Vorfalls berichtet, dass mindestens 15 ihrer Leidensgenossen getötet worden seien. Bis zu 40 weitere Menschen, überwiegend Frauen, seien zurückgelassen worden.
Ärzte ohne Grenzen behandelte Verletzte
Mitarbeiter von Ärzte ohne Grenzen hätten 25 Verletzte in einer Klinik in Bani Walid behandelt, darunter sieben mit Schusswunden und etlichen Knochenbrüchen. Bei den Überlebenden handelt es sich den Angaben zufolge vor allem um Jugendliche aus Eritrea, Äthiopien und Somalia, die Asyl in Europa anstreben.
Einige von ihnen seien traumatisiert und hätten angegeben, bis zu drei Jahre in Gefangenschaft verbracht zu haben. Viele wiesen sichtbare Narben, Verbrennungen von elektrischen Schlägen sowie entzündete Wunden auf.
Der jüngste Fluchtversuch und die Schüsse auf die Migranten würfen ein Schlaglicht auf den „andauernden Horror“, den viele Migranten und Flüchtlinge erleiden müssten, die vor Armut und Konflikten aus Afrika und dem Nahen Osten flüchteten und auf der Suche nach einem besseren Leben in Europa im Transitland Libyen strandeten, hieß es in der Mitteilung von Ärzte ohne Grenzen.
Die Hilfsorganisation ist nach eigenen Angaben seit fast einem Jahr in der Region um Bani Walid aktiv. Dort würden immer wieder Migranten entführt, gefoltert und erpresst. Zugang zu den Geheimgefängnissen in der Gegend hat Ärzte ohne Grenzen nach eigenem Bekunden nicht.
http://www.msf.org/en/article/libya-dozens-refugees-and-migrants-wounded-after-trying-escape-horrific-captivity-conditions
Libya: Dozens of refugees and migrants wounded after trying to escape horrific captivity conditions
25 May 2018 – During the evening of May 23, between 5 to 6pm, more than one hundred refugees and migrants who had been kidnapped and held captive by human traffickers west of Bani Walid, Libya, managed to escape. They were shot at while attempting to flee, resulting in several casualties and 25 injured who were referred to General Hospital of Bani Walid.The survivors, mostly teenagers from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia who were attempting to seek asylum in Europe, reported they were in the clutches of human traffickers who had sold them multiple times between Bani Walid and Nesma.
In Bani Walid General Hospital, MSF team supported hospital staff to provide medical care to the 25 people wounded. Among them, 18 suffered from minor injuries and received first aid and dressing and 7 were hospitalized for further care due to severe gunshot wounds and multiple fractures.
MSF also donated supplies to the hospital to replenish their medical stocks.
Survivors told MSF of at least 15 people were dead and said at least 40 people (majority are women) were left behind. Some of the survivors told to MSF teams that they had been held captive for up to 3 years. Scarred bodies, visible marks of electrical burns, and old infected wounds give an idea as to the ordeal they have suffered. People are traumatized, and the majority are unaccompanied minors.
A group of people in Bani Walid city, working at the public hospital, the municipality, members of civil society organizations, elders, and members of security forces among others quickly reacted and played a major role to protect the escapees as they were chased by their captors and armed men looking to re-kidnap them.
Under the supervision of local Bani Walid security forces, the survivors were transferred to a security facility inside Bani Walid. The following morning – May 24, they were transferred to detention centers in Tripoli. MSF medical teams in Tripoli are providing medical consultations and 14 severely wounded patients with gunshot injuries and multiples fractures have been referred to hospital.
“All necessary measures must be taken to ensure patients can access the required treatment and to protect these extremely vulnerable people from further harm after surviving such atrocities. Arbitrary detention cannot be a solution. They are in urgent need of protection and assistance”, said Christophe Biteau, MSF Head of mission.
This is another example of the ongoing horrors suffered by many migrants and refugees while transiting through Libya. MSF teams have no access to the clandestine prisons in Bani Walid areas, and they do not know how many people are still held in these, but kidnapping for ransom remains a thriving business, boosted by EU-sponsored policies aimed at criminalizing migrants and refugees and preventing them to reach European shores at all cost. In Bani Walid, MSF continues to provide, in partnership with local association, about 100 consultations per month on average, as many as last year.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been working for a year in Bani Walid, reportedly a region where kidnapping of migrants and refugees and use of torture against ransoms is widespread, to support Libyan actors, as horrified by the situation as we are, and who are providing assistance to people who manage to escape from these nightmarish places of captivity. MSF runs medical consultations in partnership with a local organization (Assalam) for this extremely vulnerable population, often mentally and physically broken, and organize medical referrals for most severe cases. MSF worked in detention centers nominally under the authority of the Ministry of Interior and its agency combating illegal immigration (DCIM) in the region of Tripoli, Khoms and Misrata.