REFUGEES IN LIBYA
Refugees in Libya is an organization founded by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who experienced the violence of the Libyan detention system firsthand. After Libyan authorities and militias affiliated with the Ministry of Interior raided their homes and incarcerated thousands into concentration camps, those who survived mobilized and founded the movement.
"On the 1st of October 2021, our homes, lives and properties were destroyed in an illegal and violent raid by the Libyan authorities and militias affiliated with the Ministry of Interior. Thousands of people, children, women, men, the disabled and the sick were not spared but were rounded up in an inhumane manner, crammed into buses and military vehicles and were driven to concentration camps. The day after, we, those who survived, said 'never again.' We defied death, pain, hunger, and innumerable sufferings in exchange for our human dignity, rights, and justice. Thus, we mobilized ourselves and became refugees in Libya.
We demand that:
a. Refugees are evacuated to safe countries.
b. Refugees are fairly treated by UNHCR.
c. The EU abolishes the funding of the Libyan coast guard and migrant detention centers.
d. Justice is delivered to those who have been murdered, tortured, and arbitrarily detained.
e. Libya signs the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Today, not all of us the founding members are in Libya but our main focus remains on Libya. Our movement has grown across other North African countries, namely Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Morocco, Egypt, and Sudan, where refugees face similar problems.
We have also expanded across Europe with demonstrations and presentations taking place in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Among other things, we are operating a free, multilingual support hotline for refugees via WhatsApp. It provides live support in emergency cases, such as suicide threats, severe deprivation of liberty, desert dumps, housing issues, food shortages, medical assistance needs, or coordination during militia attacks. Today Refugees in Libya is not just a word or a name but a reality which after several years of struggles of its members managed to arrive to Europe and aimed to consolidate ourselves once again.
We are Refugees and we live in Libya.
Manifesto
We come from South, East, Central, and West African countries, the Maghreb region, and the Middle East. We are fleeing from civil wars, persecutions, climate changes, and poverty back in our countries of origin. We were all pushed by circumstances beyond human endurance.
We all had left our homes seeking a second chance for our lives and therefore arrived in Libya. Here we became the hidden workforce of the Libyan economy: we lay bricks and build Libyan houses, we repair and wash Libyan cars, we cultivate and plant fruit and vegetables for Libyan farmers and dining tables, we mount satellites on high roofs for the Libyan screens, and so much more.
Apparently, this is not enough for Libyan authorities. Our workforce is not enough. They want full control of our bodies and dignity. What we found on our arrival was a nightmare made of tortures, rapes, extortions, and arbitrary detentions under a system founded and funded by European countries under which Italy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mafia regime of Libya. As a result, more than 24 thousand have died on the Mediterranean sea and thousands more in the Sahel desert while en route to Libya.
We suffered every possible and unimaginable human right violation. Not only once.
We have been forcibly intercepted at sea by the so-called Libyan coast guard - funded by the Italian and European authorities - and then brought back to prisons and concentration camps. Some of us had to repeat this cycle of humiliation two, three, five, up to ten times.
We tried to raise our voices and spread our stories. We taught these to institutions, politicians, and journalists but apart from very few interested ones, our stories remained unheard. We were deliberately silenced.
But not anymore.
Since the 1st of October 2021, the day that Libyan police and military forces came to our homes in the Gargaresh neighborhood and took ruthless, grave, and merciless crackdowns and mass raids against us. Thousands were arbitrarily arrested and detained in inhumane concentration camps.
The day after, we came as individuals and gathered at the UNHCR headquarters. Here we understood we had no other choice than to start organizing ourselves.
We raised our voices and the voices of the voiceless refugees who have been constantly silenced. We started this Movement under the name REFUGEES IN LIBYA because we believe that whoever leaves home is a refugee regardless of the reasons.
Here we are now to claim our rights and seek protection in countries of safety.
Therefore we demand now with our voices:
Evacuations to lands of safety where our rights will be protected and respected.
Justice and equality among refugees and asylum seekers who are registered with the UNHCR in Libya.
The abolishment of funding of the Libyan coast guards who have constantly and forcibly intercepted refugees fleeing the Libyan hell and brought them to Libya where all atrocities befall them.
The closure of all detention centers across Libya, which are fully funded by the Italian and European Union authorities.
The authorities should bring the perpetrators to justice who have shot and killed our brothers and sisters both in and out of the detention centers.
The Libyan authorities to stop arbitrarily detaining persons of concern to the office of UNHCR.
To call on Libya to sign and ratify the constitution of the 1951 Genève Refugee convention.
NOTE:
With our UNFAIRAGENCY.ORG campaign, we added and rephrased our current demands and they are as follows:
To take responsibility for all the people on the move detained in Ain Zara as well as within all other detention camps in Libya and to ensure their immediate release.
To promote community-based alternatives to detention and to provide humane and dignified reception and living conditions for refugees in Libya and elsewhere until resettlement is possible.
To guarantee all people on the move in Libya and elsewhere have access to a fair and transparent refugee status determination process, as it is the legal procedure that represents the first step towards the granting of international protection.
To ensure justice and equal access to rights among all refugees in Libya, independent of criteria of vulnerability, nationality, age, sexuality or gender.
To repeatedly call on safe countries to increase resettlement quotas and to accelerate and ease evacuation procedures.
To engage in exchange and sincere dialogue with "Refugees in Libya" and other grassroot networks on the ground and to recognise them as equal negotiation partners.
To facilitate access to humanitarian and legal aid services in Libya and elsewhere and to regain from the suspension of its services at all time.
To create transparency and to openly communicate their own limitations rather than upholding false expectations.
To cease any collaboration with criminal structures and to put clear rights-based conditions on cooperations with Libyan government actors.
To call on the Libyan government to sign and ratify the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol in order to create a legal basis for refugee protection within the country.
To clearly and openly condemn the European externalisation politics and to resist being abused for the EU isolationist policies.
To advocate for the end of violent pullbacks, pushbacks, and all other organised practices of border violence.