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UN investigators released a report Wednesday stating that migrants held in Libya face horrific abuse, particularly of women who are victims of sexual violence and are often forced to undergo rape in exchange for food.
The Independent Fact-Finding Mission in Libya reiterated that the worst crimes under international law are likely to take place in the war-torn country, with migrant women suffering some of the most serious abuses.
“The mission has strong evidence to believe that crimes against humanity, murder, torture, imprisonment, rape, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts have been committed in several detention facilities in Libya since 2016,” it said. statement.
Immigrants are constantly detained by authorities and human traffickers in Libya – a key transit point for tens of thousands of people, mostly from Africa, hoping to reach Europe.
The traffickers have benefited from the chaos that has gripped the country since the overthrow and assassination of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Radio Free Europe reports.
Talks are taking place in Geneva this week between Libya’s rival governments to set the rules for the long-awaited election, aimed at ending the chaos.
‘Inhuman acts’
The fact-finding mission report, to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next week, said it had gathered extensive evidence of the “systematic use of prolonged and arbitrary detention” of migrants in Libya.
Investigators, who have made several trips to Libya, describe how migrants in detention face “acts of murder, torture, rape and other inhumane acts.”
The report highlighted “sexual violence by traffickers and smugglers, often with the aim of extorting money from families.”
“The mission has also documented cases of rape in places of detention, where immigrant women are forced to have sex in order to survive, in exchange for food or other essential products,” the report said.
In fact, the known risk of sexual violence is considered high, the report said, so much so that “some immigrant women and girls implant a contraceptive implant before traveling there to avoid unwanted pregnancy due to such violence.”
Investigators brought to attention some painful stories heard from immigrants in Libya. A woman, who was held in the northern city of Ajdabiya, “described how her captors demanded sexual favors in exchange for the water she needed to wash her 6-month-old baby,” the report said.
“I allowed them to rape me. I had no other choice. I made it for my daughter. “I can not leave him in that condition,” she said.
The fact-finding mission, set up by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2020, ends its mandate in a few days.
But a group of African countries have submitted a draft resolution to the council that would allow it to continue working for another nine months.
In a report released last October, investigators concluded that crimes against humanity could have been committed in Libya, including documented cases in detention centers and against migrants.
They have compiled a list of individuals and groups believed to be behind these crimes, but the list remains confidential.
They will present another report in a few days giving more details on the crimes committed in the city of Tarhuna, southeast of Tripoli, where dozens of mass graves have been discovered over the past two years.
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