Expose the EU’s link to slavery in Libya
From Freedom United
| You’ve seen the news in Libya. Enough is enough. We’ve got to act now. 53 migrants and refugees dead in an airstrike.[1] Black Africans being sold off for forced labor.[2] Detainees being forced to take up arms in the Libyan civil war.[3] The world was shocked when news of slave markets in Libya broke two years ago, but since then cases of modern slavery in Libya have evolved considerably. And they are all linked back to migrant detention centers and the money and power fueling their existence. Now is the time to expose the EU’s complicity in abuses and put pressure on EU member states to act! |
| With generous funding from the European Union, the Libyan Coastguard has been intercepting boats in the Mediterranean Sea, taking them back to Libya and locking up innocent refugees and migrants in detention centers. And last month, the deadly airstrike on the Tajoura detention center in Tripoli revealed that these facilities are now targets in Libya’s ongoing conflict and no place for refugees to stay. With conditions deteriorating, it is urgent that EU member states step up and put humanity first. Racist, xenophobic immigration policies coupled with funding for the Libyan Coastguard are fueling modern slavery in Libya. Tell the EU it can no longer be complicit in such grave human rights violations. In solidarity, Joanna and the Freedom United team P.S. Take it from Leyla, one Somali refugee locked up in Libya after being captured by the Coastguard. “We barely ate and there wasn’t enough water. So many people were sick with TB, some died in my arms. I was beaten up and we were tortured – with electricity.”[4] The EU has the power to help Leyla — take action now. |
| [1] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/07/libya-investigate-abhorrent-attack-on-migrant-detention-centre/ [2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/iom-african-migrants-traded-libya-slave-markets-170411141809641.html [3] https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000006594318/europe-shut-african-migrants-out-libyan-rebels-bombed-them.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share [4] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49154959 |
