In the European Parliament in Brussels, the Committee Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and the subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) assess conditions for asylum-seekers in Libya against the backdrop of the situation in the country, including how armed groups may be linked to organised crime and the conditions in detention centres. Guests include representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Commission, UNHCR, IOM, Médecins sans Frontières as well as International Rescue Committee (IRC) President David Miliband

Brussels

debate

meeting

Subcommittee on Human Rights

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

Situation of migrants in detention centres in Libya and of migrants returned by the Libyan coastguard – possible solutions?: extracts from the debate

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16767630/I180858Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Anabelle ROIG GRANJON, Senior External Relations Officer, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), There are still some 300.000 Libyan displaced, internally displaced and get on country since 2001. Many have been able to return home since since then, but there has been a new wave of displacement since the conflict of April, with 128.000 persons displaced, triggering the international community to provide a humanitarian response to, as we call them, IDP (internally displaced person).

SOUNDBITE (English), Anabelle ROIG GRANJON, Senior External Relations Officer, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Some 4500 are still in detention. Despite announcement, the detention regime has not changed at all. And essentially, those in detention, such as are those who are transiting through Libya's and are being intercepted, rescued at sea or land. They are officially get some 18 or 20 detention centres to which we have access, not on a regular basis, but we may be given access on an irregular basis. And there were many more: many have been closed and many more are unofficial detention centres run by smugglers and traffickers that we do not know about.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anabelle ROIG GRANJON, Senior External Relations Officer, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), The first alternative for the intervention has been the Evacuation Transit Mechanism or the Emergency Transit Mechanism that has been set up since end of 2017. Indeed, with the help and the financial support of the EU, but also other donors. Since then, since the beginning of ETM, we have been able to release from detention centre 1689 persons.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ola HENRIKSON, Regional Director for the EEA, EU and NATO, International Office for Migration , According to our displacement tracking mechanism, there are over 650 thousands and maybe as many as a million migrants in Libya currently from 14 countries, and the top three would be Niger, Egypt and Chad.

Among those in the centres that we have managed since 2017 under our voluntary humanitarian activate evacuation, we assisted more than 44000 vulnerable migrants to safely return to their homes. As has been said, Immigration detention centres conditions in Libya continue to be a feature of inhumane conditions and widespread human rights violations. This includes documented cases of sexual abuses, extortion for release, trafficking of adults and children, and forced disappearances. These abuses take place with impunity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ellen VAN DER VELDEN, Senior Operational Advisor on Libya, M&#233;decins Sans Fronti&#232;res (MSF), Libya remains the most extreme example of how containment-based politics not only obstruct the right to seek asylum, but can turn the EU complicit to extreme abuses of migrants and refugees that are happening there.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ellen VAN DER VELDEN, Senior Operational Advisor on Libya, M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF), The actions that we recommend need to be taken is an immediate scaling up of the UN's intervention in Libya to provide protection and assistance to vulnerable groups within the country. In order for the scale up to function for refugees and asylum seekers. UNHCR and our partners need to have more presence and to do more seriously work to provide protection, immediate and temporary options in Libya which currently do not exist. A meaningful activity of UNHCR is only possible when European and other States offer relocation to all eligible migrants and refugees.

SOUNDBITE (English), Imogen SUDBERY, Director of Policy and Advocacy of IRC Brussels, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Whatever views we may hold on the EU's cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard, I have heard a lot of agreement this morning. In view of these policies and the escalating violence in Libya, the EU and in particular its Member States have an urgent responsibility to scale up massively funding and diplomatic efforts to both address the conditions migrants find themselves inside Libya and to speed up and increase safe NGO routes to access protection in Europe safely.

SOUNDBITE (English), Imogen SUDBERY, Director of Policy and Advocacy of IRC Brussels, International Rescue Committee (IRC), We see a need to better target EU funding to ensure that it is available in the areas of greatest need and also to promote systemic change rather than just treating symptoms.