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  • Face au coronavirus, Michelle Bachelet appelle à la levée des sanctions contre le Venezuela | ONU Info
    https://news.un.org/fr/story/2020/09/1078262

    La cheffe des droits de l’homme de l’ONU a réitéré, vendredi à Genève, son appel à la levée des sanctions économiques contre le Venezuela afin de faciliter l’allocation des ressources pendant la pandémie de Covid-19.

    « Je voudrais réitérer mon appel à la levée des sanctions économiques afin de faciliter l’allocation des ressources pendant la pandémie », a déclaré Michelle Bachelet, Haut-Commissaire aux droits de l’homme.

    Lors de sa mise à jour orale concernant la situation des droits de l’homme au Venezuela, Mme Bachelet a rappelé que des sanctions supplémentaires sur les exportations de diesel pourraient aggraver encore la pénurie d’essence déjà critique et entraver la distribution de l’aide humanitaire et des biens essentiels.

    Devant le Conseil des droits de l’homme, l’ancienne Présidente chilienne a rappelé certaines données avancées par des associations professionnelles. Celles-ci ont indiqué que 33% des décès dus à la Covid-19 concernaient des travailleurs de la santé, principalement en raison du manque d’équipements de biosécurité et d’eau dans les hôpitaux.

    Selon un bilan établi vendredi par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), le Venezuela recense 69.439 cas confirmés de Covid-19 dont 574 décès.

    Par ailleurs, si elle a reconnu la mise en œuvre des protocoles de biosécurité liés à la pandémie dans les centres de détention, Mme Bachelet a plaidé une nouvelle fois pour une « amélioration substantielle » des conditions de santé, d’accès à l’eau, à la nourriture et aux médicaments. Il s’agit aussi d’assurer un contact régulier avec les parents et les avocats, soit physiquement soit par téléphone, ainsi qu’à explorer des mesures alternatives à la privation de liberté.

    Plus largement, les services de la Haut-Commissaire Bachelet estiment que la pandémie est venue s’ajouter à d’autres urgences préexistantes, telles que l’urgence alimentaire. Selon Caritas, le taux de malnutrition aiguë chez les enfants a atteint 15% en juillet 2020. Elle a également indiqué que de plus en plus de familles se tournent vers des stratégies de survie, notamment en arrêtant de manger pour qu’un autre membre de la famille puisse le faire.

    Répression des manifestations pacifiques
    D’une manière générale, la cheffe des droits de l’homme de l’ONU est d’avis qu’il est essentiel dans les mois à venir que l’espace civique et démocratique soit protégé.

    « Les autorités poursuivent la libération de tous ceux qui continuent d’être arbitrairement privés de liberté pour avoir exercé leurs droits », a prôné Mme Bachelet, reconnaissant les mesures positives prises par Caracas, comme le pardon accordé à 110 personnes. Il y a aussi la libération de 40 détenus et une plus grande coopération avec l’équipe du Haut-Commissariat dans le pays.

    Elle a également relevé comme un signal positif, l’arrestation de cinq membres des Forces d’action spéciales, vraisemblablement responsables de la mort de deux personnes à Zulia le 21 août. De même, le Ministère public a signalé que 70 fonctionnaires du FAES dans différents États du pays avaient récemment été inculpés.

    En revanche, les services de Mme Bachelet ont continué à documenter les cas de répression des manifestations pacifiques dans le contexte de l’état d’urgence en vigueur depuis mars, y compris les arrestations de manifestants qui protestaient au sujet des bas salaires et des pensions, des lacunes des services publics et de la pénurie d’essence.

    La cheffe des droits de l’homme de l’ONU s’est également préoccupée du nombre élevé de jeunes morts dans les bidonvilles à la suite des opérations de sécurité. Mme Bachelet a précisé que sur la base d’informations émanant de différentes sources, quelque 711 décès ont été enregistrés par l’équipe du Haut-Commissariat de juin à août de cette année, ce qui porte à plus de 2.000 le nombre de décès dans le pays depuis janvier 2020.

    • Communiqué de l’ONU complété par El Nacional, journal d’opposition en exil, qui reprend la déclaration orale de Michelle Bachelet devant la commission des Droits humains où elle s’inquiète des obstacles à la tenue des élections parlementaires du 6 décembre.

      Bachelet expresó preocupación por la obstrucción en las parlamentarias
      https://www.elnacional.com/venezuela/bachelet-expreso-preocupacion-por-la-obstruccion-de-la-libertad-en-venez

      La alta comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos calificó de crucial que en los próximos meses se proteja el espacio cívico y democrático y se continúe con las liberaciones de todas las personas que siguen detenidas por motivos políticos

      Michelle Bachelet, alta comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, expresó este viernes 25 de septiembre su preocupación por las decisiones del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia del régimen de Nicolás Maduro que obstaculizan la libertad en el proceso de las elecciones parlamentarias.

      La funcionaria, durante su actualización oral sobre la situación en Venezuela en la 45° sesión del Consejo de Derechos Humanos, mencionó el nombramiento irregular de los representantes de siete partidos políticos de oposición y la designación no consensuada de los rectores del Consejo Nacional Electoral.

      Así como la modificación por parte del Poder Electoral del mecanismo de selección de representantes indígenas para la Asamblea Nacional, de los cambios al sistema electoral y a la composición de la Asamblea Nacional sin un proceso inclusivo de consulta previa”, agregó.

      Bachelet calificó de crucial que en los próximos meses se proteja el espacio cívico y democrático y se continúe con las liberaciones de todas las personas que siguen privadas arbitrariamente de libertad para que puedan ejercer sus derechos.

      Hago un llamado a seguir trabajando en la construcción de acuerdos para alcanzar condiciones para el desarrollo de procesos electorales creíbles, libres, inclusivos y equitativos”, concluyó la alta comisionada.

    • Du coup, l’intégralité du compte-rendu du Conseil des droits de l’homme

      HCDH | Le Conseil entend une mise à jour de Mme Bachelet sur la situation des droits de l’homme au Venezuela
      https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26299&LangID=F

      Mise à jour orale sur la situation des droits de l’homme au Venezuela

      Présentation de la mise à jour
      Dans sa mise à jour orale concernant la situation des droits de l’homme au Venezuela, MME Michelle Bachelet, Haute-Commissaire aux droits de l’homme, a reconnu que le Gouvernement du Venezuela avait récemment pris des mesures positives, comme le pardon accordé à 110 personnes, la libération de 40 détenus et une plus grande coopération avec l’équipe du Haut-Commissariat dans le pays. Cette dernière a néanmoins continué à documenter les cas de répression des manifestations pacifiques dans le contexte de l’état d’urgence en vigueur depuis mars, y compris les arrestations de manifestants qui protestaient au sujet des bas salaires et des pensions, des lacunes des services publics et de la pénurie d’essence. Mme Bachelet a par ailleurs relevé, notamment dans le cadre de l’application de la législation anti-haine, des restrictions à la liberté d’expression incluant des attaques et des arrestations contre les défenseurs des droits humains et des journalistes.

      Mme Bachelet a en outre réitéré son appel à améliorer considérablement les conditions de santé dans les prisons, l’accès à l’eau, la nourriture et les soins de santé, et à garantir des contacts réguliers des détenus avec les membres de leur famille et avec des avocats, que ce soit physiquement ou par téléphone. Il conviendrait en outre d’étudier des mesures alternatives à la privation de liberté, a-t-elle ajouté. 

      La Haute-Commissaire a également réitéré son appel à la levée des sanctions économiques contre le pays pour faciliter l’allocation des ressources pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. 

      Mme Bachelet s’est ensuite montrée préoccupée par le nombre élevé de jeunes morts dans les bidonvilles à la suite des opérations de sécurité. Elle a précisé que sur la base d’informations émanant de différentes sources, quelque 711 décès ont été enregistrés par l’équipe du Haut-Commissariat de juin à août de cette année, ce qui porte à plus de 2000 le nombre de décès dans le pays depuis janvier 2020.

      Mme Bachelet a déclaré qu’elle considérait comme positive l’arrestation de cinq membres des Forces d’action spéciales, vraisemblablement responsables de la mort de deux personnes à Zulia le 21 août. Les déclarations publiques du procureur général sur cette affaire montrent un schéma similaire à celui documenté par le Haut-Commissariat – un schéma dans lequel, après avoir exécuté les victimes neutralisées, les forces de sécurité les ont volées et ont manipulé les preuves pour présenter les faits autrement. De même, le Ministère public a signalé que 70 fonctionnaires du FAES dans différents États du pays avaient récemment été inculpés.

      La Haute-Commissaire s’est dite préoccupée par la modification du mécanisme de sélection des représentants autochtones à l’Assemblée nationale, ainsi que par les changements apportés au système électoral et à la composition de l’Assemblée nationale sans processus inclusif de consultation préalable.

      Il est essentiel que dans les mois à venir l’espace civique et démocratique soit protégé et que les autorités poursuivent la libération de tous ceux qui continuent d’être arbitrairement privés de liberté pour avoir exercé leurs droits.

      Pays concerné
      Le Venezuela a déclaré que cette mise à jour avait été demandée par un tout petit groupe de pays du Conseil et que le Conseil devrait plutôt s’intéresser aux graves violations des droits de l’homme qui se poursuivent quotidiennement dans les États de la région. Cette initiative est hostile et aggrave les difficultés du pays, a poursuivi la délégation vénézuélienne. La promotion et la protection des droits de l’homme doivent se faire par un dialogue véritable et dans un esprit de coopération, a-t-elle insisté. Les travaux du Conseil doivent se dérouler en toute objectivité et impartialité. Il faut mettre un terme à l’approche empreinte de « deux poids, deux mesures ». 

      Il n’en reste pas moins que le Venezuela reste ouvert pour un échange de vues honnête avec la Haute-Commissaire et le Haut-Commissariat, a indiqué la délégation, avant de faire valoir la coopération avec le bureau du Haut-Commissariat au Venezuela. Le Venezuela a par ailleurs dénoncé les mesures coercitives unilatérales dont il est victime et qui constitue, selon lui, un crime contre l’humanité.

  • HCDH | Bachelet sounds alarm over Lebanon economic crisis, calls for urgent and unified response
    https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26072&LangID=E

    The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet today warned of the crippling impact of the socio-economic crisis on Lebanon’s population, and urged the Government, political parties and the financial sector to work together to ensure the protection of the poorest and most vulnerable.
    Vulnerable Lebanese, in addition to other vulnerable groups such as refugees and migrant workers, are increasingly unable to meet their basic needs, she said. “This situation is fast spiralling out of control, with many already destitute and facing starvation as a direct result of this crisis,” Bachelet said.
    "The growing economic shocks, coupled with the outbreak of COVID-19, have touched all sections of society. Many have lost jobs, seen their life-savings evaporate before their eyes and lost their homes.

    #Covid19#migrant#migration#liban#onu#droitsfondamentaux#pauvrete#vulnerabilite

  • HCDH | Eradiquer la pauvreté pour 2030 est un rêve qui s’éloigne, selon un expert de l’ONU
    https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26043&LangID=F

    La pandémie du Covid-19 menace de famine 250 millions de personnes supplémentaires et douche les espoirs d’éradiquer la pauvreté pour 2030, constate un expert de l’ONU dans un rapport publié aujourd’hui.

    Le rapport, présenté aujourd’hui au Conseil des Droits de l’Homme de l’ONU par Olivier De Schutter, Rapporteur Spécial sur l’extrême pauvreté et les droits de l’homme, a été préparé par son prédécesseur Philip Alston. Il dénonce la manière dont les gouvernements ont tablé sur la croissance économique comme moyen de réduire la pauvreté. Il relève que l’agenda 2030 de l’ONU reposant sur les Objectifs de développement durable prend appui sur une mesure de la pauvreté promue par la Banque mondiale, fixée à un niveau beaucoup trop bas, permettant aux gouvernements de se se conforter dans l’illusion que des progrès significatifs sont réalisés dans la lutte contre la pauvreté.
    Le rapport rappelle que la pandémie va faire croître les chiffres de l’extrême pauvreté de 176 millions d’individus, renforçant l’exclusion que subissent de longue date les personnes ayant des faibles revenus, parmi lesquelles les femmes, les travailleurs migrants et les réfugiés sont sur-représentés. Le bilan catastrophique de la communauté internationale dans la lutte contre la pauvreté, les inégalités et le mépris des vies humains précède la pandémie.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#onu#pauvrete#droitsfondamentaux

  • HCDH | Spain: Passing the buck on exploited migrant workers must end, says UN expert
    https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26007&LangID=E

    The Government and Spanish companies must immediately improve abysmal conditions for neglected migrant labourers deployed as “essential workers” to pick strawberries during the COVID-19 pandemic while the rest of Spain was under lockdown, a UN expert said today.
    The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, said all authorities are responsible for ensuring that migrant workers are guaranteed conditions, including access to adequate healthcare, that meet international standards.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#onu#espagne#droits#travailleurmigrant

  • HCDH | Croatia: Police brutality in migrant pushback operations must be investigated and sanctioned – UN Special Rapporteurs
    https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25976&LangID=E

    Croatia must immediately investigate reports of excessive use of force by law enforcement personnel against migrants, including acts amounting to torture and ill-treatment, and sanction those responsible, UN human rights experts said today.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#onu#croatie#droitsfondamentaux

  • OHCHR | COVID-19: Urgent help for India’s forgotten migrant workers must follow Supreme Court ruling, say UN experts

    UN experts said today the Indian Government must urgently comply with a Supreme Court order to ensure the wellbeing of more than 100 million internal migrant workers suffering hardship after COVID-19 measures forced them to travel long distances home, many on foot

    https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25926&LangID=E


    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#onu#inde#travailleurmigrant

  • Europe’s deadly migration strategy. Officials knew EU military operation made Mediterranean crossing more dangerous.

    Since its creation in 2015, Europe’s military operation in the Mediterranean — named “#Operation_Sophia” — has saved some 49,000 people from the sea. But that was never really the main objective.

    The goal of the operation — which at its peak involved over a dozen sea and air assets from 27 EU countries, including ships, airplanes, drones and submarines — was to disrupt people-smuggling networks off the coast of Libya and, by extension, stem the tide of people crossing the sea to Europe.

    European leaders have hailed the operation as a successful joint effort to address the migration crisis that rocked the bloc starting in 2015, when a spike in arrivals overwhelmed border countries like Greece and Italy and sparked a political fight over who would be responsible for the new arrivals.

    But a collection of leaked documents from the European External Action Service, the bloc’s foreign policy arm, obtained by POLITICO (https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/OperationSophia.pdf), paint a different picture.

    In internal memos, the operation’s leaders admit Sophia’s success has been limited by its own mandate — it can only operate in international waters, not in Libyan waters or on land, where smuggling networks operate — and it is underfunded, understaffed and underequipped.

    “Sophia is a military operation with a very political agenda" — Barbara Spinelli, Italian MEP

    The confidential reports also show the EU is aware that a number of its policies have made the sea crossing more dangerous for migrants, and that it nonetheless chose to continue to pursue those strategies. Officials acknowledge internally that some members of the Libyan coast guard that the EU funds, equips and trains are collaborating with smuggling networks.

    For the operation’s critics, the EU’s willingness to turn a blind eye to these shortcomings — as well as serious human rights abuses by the Libyan coast guard and in the country’s migrant detention centers — are symptomatic of what critics call the bloc’s incoherent approach to managing migration and its desire to outsource the problem to non-EU countries.

    “Sophia is a military operation with a very political agenda,” said Barbara Spinelli, an Italian MEP and member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament. “It has become an instrument of refoulement, legitimizing militias with criminal records, dressed up as coast guards.”

    Now the operation, which is managed by Italy and has been dogged by political disagreements since it began, is coming under increasing pressure as the deadline for its renewal approaches in March.

    Italy’s deputy prime minister, far-right leader Matteo Salvini, has said the operation should only be extended if there are new provisions to resettle rescued people across the bloc. Last month, Germany announced it would be discontinuing its participation in the program, claiming that Italy’s refusal to allow rescued migrants to disembark is undermining the mission.

    Named after a baby girl born on an EU rescue ship, Sophia is the uneasy compromise to resolve a deep split across the bloc: between those who pushed for proactive search-and-rescue efforts to save more lives and those who favored pulling resources from the sea to make the crossing more dangerous.

    The naval operation sits uncomfortably between the two, rescuing migrants in distress at sea, but insisting its primary focus is to fight smugglers off the coast of Libya. The two activities are frequently in conflict.

    The operation has cycled through a number of strategies since its launch: a campaign to destroy boats used by smugglers; law-enforcement interviews with those rescued at sea; extensive aerial surveillance; and training and funding a newly consolidated Libyan coast guard.

    But the success of these approaches is highly disputed, and in some cases they have put migrants’ lives at greater risk.

    The EU’s policy of destroying the wooden boats used by smugglers to avoid them being reused, for example, has indeed disrupted the Libyan smuggling business, but at a substantial human cost.

    As Libyan smugglers lost their wooden boats, many started to rely more heavily on smaller, cheaper rubber boats. The boats, which smugglers often overfill to maximize profit, are not as safe as the wooden vessels and less likely to reach European shores. Instead, Libyan smugglers started to abandon migrants in international waters, leaving them to be pulled out of peril by European rescue ships.

    Sophia officials tracked the situation and were aware of the increased risk to migrants as a result of the policy. “Smugglers can no longer recover smuggling vessels on the high seas, effectively rendering them a less economic option for the smuggling business and thereby hampering it,” they wrote in a 2016 status report seen by POLITICO.

    The report acknowledged however that the policy has pushed migrants into using rubber boats, putting them in greater danger. “Effectively, with the limited supply and the degree of overloading, the migrant vessels are [distress] cases from the moment they launch,” it said.

    These overfilled rubber boats, which officials described as shipwrecks waiting to happen, also present a problem for the EU operation.

    International maritime law compels vessels to respond to people in distress at sea and bring the rescued to a nearby safe port. And because European courts have held that Libya has no safe port, that means bringing migrants found at sea to Europe — in most cases, Italy.

    This has exacerbated political tensions in the country, where far-right leader Salvini has responded to the influx of new arrivals by closing ports to NGO and humanitarian ships carrying migrants and threatening to bar Sophia vessels from docking.

    Meanwhile, Sophia officials have complained that rescuing people from leaking, unseaworthy boats detracted from the operation’s ability to pursue its primary target: Libyan smugglers.

    In a leaked status report from 2017, Sophia officials made a highly unusual suggestion: that the operation be granted permission to suspend its rescue responsibilities in order to focus on its anti-smuggling operations.

    “Consideration should be given to an option that would allow the operation to be authorized for being temporarily exempt from search and rescue when actively conducting anti-smuggling operations against jackals in international waters,” the report read.

    The EU has also wilfully ignored inconvenient aspects of its policies when it comes to its collaboration with Libya’s municipal coast guard.

    The intention of the strategy — launched one year into the Sophia operation — was to equip Libyan authorities to intercept migrant boats setting off from the Libyan coast and bring people back to shore. This saved Europe from sending its own ships close to coast, and meant that people could be brought back to Libya, rather than to Europe, as required by international maritime law — or more specifically, Italy.

    Here too, the EU was aware it was pursuing a problematic strategy, as the Libyan coast guard has a well-documented relationship with Libyan smugglers.

    A leaked report from Frontex, the EU’s coast guard, noted in 2016: “As mentioned in previous reports, some members of Libya’s local authorities are involved in smuggling activities.” The report cited interviews with recently rescued people who said they were smuggled by Libyans in uniform. It also noted that similar conclusions were reported multiple times by the Italian coast guard and Operation Sophia.

    “Many of [the coast guard officers] were militia people — many of them fought with militias during the civil war" — Rabih Boualleg, Operation Sophia translator

    In Sophia’s leaked status report from 2017, operation leaders noted that “migrant smuggling and human trafficking networks remain well ingrained” throughout the region and that smugglers routinely “pay off authorities” for passage to international waters.

    “Many of [the coast guard officers] were militia people — many of them fought with militias during the civil war,” said Rabih Boualleg, who worked as a translator for Operation Sophia in late 2016 on board a Dutch ship involved in training the coast guard from Tripoli.

    “They were telling me that many of them hadn’t gotten their government salaries in eight months. They told me, jokingly, that they were ‘forced’ to take money from smugglers sometimes.”

    The coast guards talked openly about accepting money from smuggling networks in exchange for escorting rubber boats to international waters instead of turning them back toward the shore, Boualleg said.

    “If the [on-duty] coast guard came,” Boualleg added, “they would just say they were fishermen following the rubber boats, that’s all.”

    Frontex’s 2016 report documents similar cases. Two officials with close knowledge of Sophia’s training of the Libyan coast guard also confirmed that members of the coast guard are involved in smuggling networks. A spokesperson for the Libyan coast guard did not return repeated requests for comment.

    EU governments have, for the most part, simply looked the other way.

    And that’s unlikely to change, said a senior European official with close knowledge of Operation Sophia who spoke on condition of anonymity. For the first time since the start of the operation, Libyan authorities are returning more people to Libya than are arriving in Italy.

    “If Italy decides — since it is the country in command of Operation Sophia — to stop it, it is up to Italy to make this decision" — Dimitris Avramopoulos, immigration commissioner

    “Europe doesn’t want to upset this balance,” the official said. “Any criticism of the coast guards could lead to resentment, to relaxing.”

    Two years into the training program, leaked reports also show the Libyan coast guard was unable to manage search-and-rescue activities on its own. Sophia monitors their operations with GoPro cameras and through surveillance using ships, airplanes, drones and submarines.

    The operation is limited by its mandate, but it has made progress in difficult circumstances, an EEAS spokesperson said. Operation Sophia officials did not respond to multiple interview requests and declined to answer questions via email.

    “The provision of training the Libyan coast guard and navy, as well as continued engagement with them have proven to be the most effecting complementary tool to disrupt the activities of those involved in trafficking,” the EEAS spokesperson said in an email.

    The spokesperson maintained that Libyan coast guards who are trained by Operation Sophia undergo a “thorough vetting procedure." The spokesperson also stated that, while Operation Sophia does advise and monitor the Libyan coast guard, the operation is not involved “in the decision-making in relation to operations.”

    *

    With the March deadline for the operation’s renewal fast approaching, pressure is mounting to find a way to reform Sophia or disband it altogether.

    When Salvini closed Italy’s ports to NGO and humanitarian ships last July, the country’s foreign minister turned to the EU to negotiate a solution that would ensure migrants rescued as part of Operation Sophia would be resettled among other countries. At the time, Italy said it expected results “within weeks.” Six months later, neither side has found a way through the impasse.

    “The fate of this operation is not determined yet,” European Commissioner for Immigration Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters last month, adding that discussions about allowing migrants to disembark in non-Italian ports are still underway among member countries.

    “If Italy decides — since it is the country in command of Operation Sophia — to stop it, it is up to Italy to make this decision.”

    The political fight over the future of the operation has been made more acute by an increase in criticism from human rights organizations. Reports of violence, torture and extortion in Libyan detention centers have put the naval operation and EEAS on the defensive.

    A Human Rights Watch report published in January found that Europe’s support for the Libyan coast guard has contributed to cases of arbitrary detention, and that people intercepted by Libyan authorities “face inhuman and degrading conditions and the risk of torture, sexual violence, extortion, and forced labor.” Amnesty International has also condemned the conditions under which migrants are being held, and in an open letter published earlier this month, 50 major aid organizations warned that “EU leaders have allowed themselves to become complicit in the tragedy unfolding before their eyes.”

    These human rights violations have been well documented. In 2016, the U.N. Human Rights Office said it considered “migrants to be at high risk of suffering serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, in Libya and thus urges States not to return, or facilitate the return of, persons to Libya.”

    Last June, the U.N. sanctioned six men for smuggling and human rights violations, including the head of the coast guard in Zawiya, a city west of Tripoli. A number of officials under his command, a leaked EEAS report found, were trained by Operation Sophia.

    An EEAS spokesperson would not comment on the case of the Zawiya coast guards trained by Operation Sophia or how the officers were vetted. The spokesperson said that none of the coast guards “trained by Operation Sophia” are on the U.N. sanctions list.

    The deteriorating human rights situation has prompted a growing chorus of critics to argue the EU’s arrangement with Libya is unsustainable.

    “What does the EU do in Libya? They throw money at projects, but they don’t have a very tangible operation on the ground" — Tarek Megerisi, Libyan expert

    “Returning anyone to Libya is against international law,” said Salah Margani, a former justice minister in Libya’s post-civil war government. “Libya is not a safe place. They will be subject to murder. They will be subjected to torture.”

    “This is documented,” Margani added. “And [Europe] knows it.”

    Sophia is also indicative of a larger, ineffective European policy toward Libya, said Tarek Megerisi, a Libya specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

    “What does the EU do in Libya? They throw money at projects, but they don’t have a very tangible operation on the ground. They really struggle to convert what they spend into political currency — Operation Sophia is all they’ve got,” he said.

    The project, he added, is less a practical attempt to stop smuggling or save migrants than a political effort to paper over differences within the EU when it comes to migration policy.

    With Sophia, he said, Europe is “being as vague as possible so countries like Italy and Hungary can say this is our tool for stopping migration, and countries like Germany and Sweden can say we’re saving lives.”

    “With this operation, there’s something for everyone,” he said.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-deadly-migration-strategy-leaked-documents

    Commentaire ECRE :

    Leaked documents obtained by @POLITICOEurope show that the #EU knew its military operation “Sophia” in the Mediterranean made sea crossing more dangerous.

    https://twitter.com/ecre/status/1101074946057482240

    #responsabilité #Méditerranée #mourir_en_mer #asile #migrations #réfugiés #mer_Méditerranée #Frontex #EU #UE
    #leaks #sauvetage #externalisation #frontières

    –-----------------------------------------

    Mise en exergue de quelques passages de l’article qui me paraissent particulièrement intéressants :

    The confidential reports also show the EU is aware that a number of its policies have made the sea crossing more dangerous for migrants, and that it nonetheless chose to continue to pursue those strategies. Officials acknowledge internally that some members of the Libyan coast guard that the EU funds, equips and trains are collaborating with smuggling networks.

    Named after a baby girl born on an EU rescue ship, Sophia is the uneasy compromise to resolve a deep split across the bloc: between those who pushed for proactive search-and-rescue efforts to save more lives and those who favored pulling resources from the sea to make the crossing more dangerous.
    The naval operation sits uncomfortably between the two, rescuing migrants in distress at sea, but insisting its primary focus is to fight smugglers off the coast of Libya. The two activities are frequently in conflict.

    The report acknowledged however that the policy has pushed migrants into using rubber boats, putting them in greater danger. “Effectively, with the limited supply and the degree of overloading, the migrant vessels are [distress] cases from the moment they launch,” it said.

    In a leaked status report from 2017 (https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ENFM-2017-2.pdf), Sophia officials made a highly unusual suggestion: that the operation be granted permission to suspend its rescue responsibilities in order to focus on its anti-smuggling operations.

    “Consideration should be given to an option that would allow the operation to be authorized for being temporarily exempt from search and rescue when actively conducting anti-smuggling operations against jackals in international waters,” the report read.

    A leaked report from #Frontex (https://theintercept.com/2017/04/02/new-evidence-undermines-eu-report-tying-refugee-rescue-group-to-smuggl), the EU’s coast guard, noted in 2016: “As mentioned in previous reports, some members of Libya’s local authorities are involved in smuggling activities.” The report cited interviews with recently rescued people who said they were smuggled by Libyans in uniform. It also noted that similar conclusions were reported multiple times by the Italian coast guard and Operation Sophia.

    In Sophia’s leaked status report from 2017, operation leaders noted that “migrant smuggling and human trafficking networks remain well ingrained” throughout the region and that smugglers routinely “pay off authorities” for passage to international waters. “Many of [the coast guard officers] were militia people — many of them fought with militias during the civil war,” said Rabih Boualleg, who worked as a translator for Operation Sophia in late 2016 on board a Dutch ship involved in training the coast guard from Tripoli. The coast guards talked openly about accepting money from smuggling networks in exchange for escorting rubber boats to international waters instead of turning them back toward the shore, Boualleg said.

    Frontex’s 2016 report documents similar cases. Two officials with close knowledge of Sophia’s training of the Libyan coast guard also confirmed that members of the coast guard are involved in smuggling networks. A spokesperson for the Libyan coast guard did not return repeated requests for comment.

    Two years into the training program, leaked reports (https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ENFM-Monitoring-of-Libyan-Coast-Guard-and-Navy-Report-October-2017-January-2018.pdf) also show the Libyan coast guard was unable to manage search-and-rescue activities on its own. Sophia monitors their operations with GoPro cameras and through surveillance using ships, airplanes, drones and submarines.

    A Human Rights Watch report (https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/01/21/no-escape-hell/eu-policies-contribute-abuse-migrants-libya) published in January found that Europe’s support for the Libyan coast guard has contributed to cases of arbitrary detention, and that people intercepted by Libyan authorities “face inhuman and degrading conditions and the risk of torture, sexual violence, extortion, and forced labor.” Amnesty International has also condemned (https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LY/DetainedAndDehumanised_en.pdf) the conditions under which migrants are being held, and in an open letter published earlier this month, 50 major aid organizations warned that “EU leaders have allowed themselves to become complicit in the tragedy unfolding before their eyes.”

    “Returning anyone to Libya is against international law,” said Salah Margani, a former justice minister in Libya’s post-civil war government. “Libya is not a safe place. They will be subject to murder. They will be subjected to torture.”

    “This is documented,” Margani added. “And [Europe] knows it.”
    Sophia is also indicative of a larger, ineffective European policy toward Libya, said Tarek Megerisi, a Libya specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
    “What does the EU do in Libya? They throw money at projects, but they don’t have a very tangible operation on the ground. They really struggle to convert what they spend into political currency — Operation Sophia is all they’ve got,” he said.

    With Sophia, he said, Europe is “being as vague as possible so countries like Italy and Hungary can say this is our tool for stopping migration, and countries like Germany and Sweden can say we’re saving lives.”
    “With this operation, there’s something for everyone,” he said.

    #flou

  • Violences à Gaza : Israël convoque l’ambassadeur de Belgique après le vote de l’ONU
    La DH - belga Publié le lundi 21 mai 2018 à 18h07
    http://www.dhnet.be/actu/monde/violences-a-gaza-israel-convoque-l-ambassadeur-de-belgique-apres-le-vote-de-l-

    Israël a convoqué lundi les ambassadeurs d’Espagne, de Slovénie et de Belgique en réaction au vote de ces pays au Conseil des droits de l’Homme de l’ONU pour l’envoi d’une mission d’enquête internationale sur les événements sanglants à Gaza.

    Selon un communiqué du ministère des Affaires étrangères israélien, la directrice adjointe chargée de l’Europe occidentale a rencontré lundi les ambassadeurs d’Espagne et de Slovénie tandis que l’ambassadeur de Belgique sera reçu mardi.

    • Le Conseil des droits de l’homme décide la création d’une commission d’enquête sur les attaques militaires israéliennes contre les manifestations civiles palestiniennes
      GENEVA (18 mai 2018)
      http://www.ohchr.org/FR/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=23107&LangID=F

      (...) Les États suivants ont voté en faveur de la résolution (29) : Afghanistan, Afrique du Sud, Angola, Arabie Saoudite, Belgique, Brésil, Burundi, Chili, Chine, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Égypte, Émirats Arabes Unis, Équateur, Espagne, Irak, Kirghizistan, Mexique, Népal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Pérou, Philippines, Qatar, République Démocratique du Congo, Sénégal, Slovénie, Tunisie et Venezuela.

      Les États suivants ont voté contre (2) : Australie et États-Unis.

      Les États suivants se sont abstenus (14) : Allemagne, Croatie, Éthiopie, Géorgie, Hongrie, Japon, Kenya, Panama, République de Corée, Royaume-Uni, Rwanda, Slovaquie, Suisse et Togo.

      Déclarations concernant le projet de résolution
      (...)
      La Belgique, s’exprimant également au nom de l’Espagne et de la Slovénie, a dit soutenir le projet de résolution et la création d’une commission d’enquête, car à leurs yeux, l’usage de la force contre ces manifestants n’était pas justifié. Les trois délégations saluent la coopération de l’État de Palestine pour parvenir à un texte équilibré, même s’ils regrettent que le texte ne fasse pas mention du droit légitime d’Israël à protéger ses frontières. Les délégations, tout en appuyant le texte, appellent le Hamas et les organisateurs de ces manifestations à faire preuve de plus responsabilité.(...)

  • OHCHR | UN human rights expert condemns horrific violence in #Gaza
    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23087&LangID=E

    “I must reiterate that international human rights law sets strict prohibitions on the use of force by law enforcement officials. Lethal force against demonstrators is prohibited unless strictly unavoidable in the case of an imminent threat to life or threat of serious injury. The killing of demonstrators in violation of these rules, and within the context of #occupation, may amount to willful killing, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as a war crime.”

    #crimes #Israel #assassinats

  • Fuir une dictature et mourir de faim en Italie, après avoir traversé la Méditerranée et passé des mois dans des centres en Libye.
    10 personnes à ses funérailles.
    Et l’Europe n’a pas honte.

    Ragusa, il funerale dell’eritreo morto di fame dopo la traversata verso l’Italia

    Il parroco di Modica: «Di lui sappiamo solo che è un nostro fratello»


    http://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/03/20/news/ragusa_il_funerale_dell_eritreo_morto_di_fame_dopo_la_traversata_
    #mourir_de_faim #faim #Libye #torture #asile #migrations #fermeture_des_frontières #Méditerranée

    • Nawal Sos a décidé de faire un travail de récolte de témoignage de personnes qui ont vécu l’#enfer libyen, suite à la saisie du bateau de l’ONG Open Arms en Méditerranée.

      Pour celles et ceux qui ne connaissent pas Nawal :
      https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawal_Soufi

      Voici le premier témoignage qu’elle a publié sur FB, que je copie-colle de la page web de Nawal :

      Questa e’ la testimonianza del primo rifugiato che ha dato la disponibilita’ a comparire davanti a qualsiasi corte italiana per raccontare i suoi giorni passati tra gli scafisti in Libia.

      Il 9 aprile del 2015 sono arrivato a casa dello scafista. Da casa sua sono partito via mare il 4 maggio del 2015. Erano le due di notte. In questo periodo le mie condizioni di salute erano particolari ed ero con uno/due ragazzi. Gli altri stavano peggio di me, dentro delle stanze dove la capienza era di dieci persone e in cui venivano rinchiuse settanta/ottanta/cento persone. Ci veniva dato solamente un pasto a giornata ed esso era composto da pane e acqua. L’acqua non bastava per tutti. Non c’erano servizi igienici per fare i propri bisogni. Prima dell’arrivo alla casa dello scafista viene raccontato che la situazione sarà perfetta e la casa grande in modo da garantire le migliori condizioni e che esiste un accordo con la guardia costiera. Appena si arriva a casa dello scafista si trovano altre condizioni. Una delle promesse che erano state fatte era quella di partire in poche ore, al massimo ventiquattro via mare. La verità è però che è necessario aspettare in base agli accordi con la guardia costiera: se vengono raggiunti dopo una settimana si parte dopo una settimana altrimenti è necessario aspettare fino a un mese, come è stato per me. Se una persona paga molto gli verrà fornito un salvagente altrimenti bisognerà affrontare il viaggio senza. Qualcuno portava con sé il salvagente mentre altri credevano alle parole dello scafista e non lo portavano. Anche sul salvagente cominciavano le false promesse: «Domani vi porteremo i salvagenti..». A seguito di queste promesse iniziavano a farsi strada delle tensioni con lo scafista. Le barche di legno su cui avremmo dovuto viaggiare erano a due piani: nel piano di sotto vi era la sala motore dov’è lo spazio per ogni essere umano non supera 30 x 30 cm massimo 40. Mettevano le persone una sopra l’altra. Le persone che venivano messe sotto erano le persone che pagavano di meno. Ovviamente lo scafista aveva tutto l’interesse di mettere in questo spazio il maggior numero di persone possibili per guadagnare sempre più con la scusante di usare questo guadagno per pagare la guardia costiera libica, la manutenzione della barca e altre persone necessarie per partire. Proprio nella sala motore ci sono stati vari casi di morti. La maggior parte della barche veniva comprata da Ras Agedir e Ben Gerdan, in Tunisia. Le barche arrivavano dalla Tunisia in pieno giorno, passando dalla dogana senza essere tassate né controllate. Le barche venivano portate al porto e ristrutturate davanti agli occhi di tutti. Una volta riempite le barche venivano fatte partire in pieno giorno (dalle prime ore del mattino fino alle due del pomeriggio) senza essere fermate dalla guardia costiera libica. Le uniche a essere fermate erano quelle degli scafisti che non pagavano mazzette ed esse venivano riportate indietro e i migranti arrestati. La guardia costiera chiedeva poi un riscatto allo scafista per liberare le persone. Così facendo lo obbligavano la volta dopo a pagare una mazzetta prima di far partire le sue imbarcazioni.
      In un caso molti siriani erano saliti su quella che chiamavamo «l’imbarcazione dei medici». Questi medici avevano comprato la barca per partire senza pagare gli scafisti ed erano partiti. A bordo c’erano 80/100 persone. Sono stati seguiti da individui non identificati che gli hanno sparato contro causando la morte di tutte le persone a bordo. Non si sa se siano stati degli scafisti o la guardia costiera.
      I contatti tra la guardia costiera libica e gli scafisti risultano evidenti nel momento in cui le persone fermate in mare e riportate a terra vengono liberate tramite pagamento di un riscatto da parte degli scafisti. Queste stesse persone riescono poi a partire con lo stesso scafista via mare senza essere fermate.
      In Libia, dove ho vissuto due anni, le condizioni di vita sono molto difficili. Gli stessi libici hanno iniziato a lottare per ottenere qualcosa da mangiare e per me, in quanto siriano senza possibilità di andare da qualsiasi altra parte, l’unica cosa importante era poter lavorare e vivere. Conosco molti ingegneri e molti professionisti che hanno lasciato la loro vita per venire in Libia a fare qualsiasi tipo di lavoro pur di sopravvivere. Non avevo quindi altra soluzione se non quella di partire via mare verso l’Europa. Sono partito e sono arrivato a Lampedusa e da lì ho raggiunto Catania.

      https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=580561452301350&id=100010425011901
      J’espère voir les autres témoignages aussi... mais elle les publie sur FB, du coup, je pense que je vais certainement ne pas tout voir.

    • Deuxième témoignage :

      Questa e’ la seconda persona che ha dato la sua disponibilita’ a comparire di fronte a qualsiasi Corte italiana per raccontare il suo viaggio e forse altri compagni di viaggio che erane nella stessa barca si uniranno a lui.
      Testimonianza di: Ragazzo Palestinese di Gaza
      (Per ovvi motivi non posso citare in nome qui)

      Traduzione in italiano:

      Per quanto riguarda il traffico degli esseri umani avviene tra Zebrata e Zuara in Libia. Tra i trafficanti e la guardia costiera libica c’è un accordo di pagamento per far partire le imbarcazioni. Al trafficante che non paga la guardia costiera gli viene affondata l’imbarcazione. La squadra della guardia costiera che fa questi accordi e’ quella di Al Anqaa’ العنقاء appartenente alla zona di Ezzawi. Otto mesi fa siamo partiti da Zebrata e siamo stati rapiti dalla guardia costiera libica. Dopo il rapimento abbiamo detto loro che siamo partiti tramite lo scafista che si chiama Ahmed Dabbashi. E la risposta della guardia costiera è stata: se solo ci aveste detto che eravate partiti tramite lo scafista Ahmed Debbash tutto ciò non sarebbe successo.

      Je n’arrive pas à copier-coller le link FB (arrghhh)

    • Time to Investigate European Agents for Crimes against Migrants in Libya

      In March 2011, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor of the international criminal court opened its investigation into the situation in Libya, following a referral by the UN Security Council. The investigation concerns crimes against humanity in Libya starting 15 February 2011, including the crimes against humanity of murder and persecution, allegedly committed by Libyan agents. As the ICC Prosecutor explained to the UN Security Council in her statement of 8 May 2017, the investigation also concerns “serious and widespread crimes against migrants attempting to transit through Libya.” Fatou Bensouda labels Libya as a “marketplace for the trafficking of human beings.” As she says, “thousands of vulnerable migrants, including women and children, are being held in detention centres across Libya in often inhumane condition.” The findings are corroborated by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNMSIL) and the Panel of Experts established pursuant to Resolution 1973 (2011). Both report on the atrocities to which migrants are subjected, not only by armed militias, smugglers and traffickers, but also by the new Libyan Coast Guard and the Department for Combatting Illegal Migration of the UN-backed Al Sarraj’s Government of National Accord – established with EU and Italian support.

      https://www.ejiltalk.org/time-to-investigate-european-agents-for-crimes-against-migrants-in-libya

    • UN report details scale and horror of detention in Libya

      Armed groups in Libya, including those affiliated with the State, hold thousands of people in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention, and submit them to torture and other human rights violations and abuses, according to a UN report published on Tuesday.

      “Men, women and children across Libya are arbitrarily detained or unlawfully deprived of their liberty based on their tribal or family links and perceived political affiliations,” the report by the UN Human Rights Office says. “Victims have little or no recourse to judicial remedy or reparations, while members of armed groups enjoy total impunity.”

      “This report lays bare not only the appalling abuses and violations experienced by Libyans deprived of their liberty, but the sheer horror and arbitrariness of such detentions, both for the victims and their families,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. “These violations and abuses need to stop – and those responsible for such crimes should be held fully to account.”

      Since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, medical professionals, journalists and politicians, the report says. Hostage-taking for prisoner exchanges or ransom is also common. Those detained arbitrarily or unlawfully also include people held in relation to the 2011 armed conflict - many without charge, trial or sentence for over six years.

      The report, published in cooperation with the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), summarizes the main human rights concerns regarding detention in Libya since the signing of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) on 17 December 2015 until 1 January 2018. The implementation of provisions in the LPA to address the situation of people detained arbitrarily for prolonged periods of time has stalled, it notes.

      “Rather than reining in armed groups and integrating their members under State command and control structures, successive Libyan governments have increasingly relied on them for law enforcement, including arrests and detention; paid them salaries; and provided them with equipment and uniforms,” the report says. As a result, their power has grown unchecked and they have remained free of effective government oversight.

      Some 6,500 people were estimated to be held in official prisons overseen by the Judicial Police of the Ministry of Justice, as of October 2017. There are no available statistics for facilities nominally under the Ministries of Interior and Defence, nor for those run directly by armed groups.

      “These facilities are notorious for endemic torture and other human rights violations or abuses,” the report says. For example, the detention facility at Mitiga airbase in Tripoli holds an estimated 2,600 men, women and children, most without access to judicial authorities. In Kuweifiya prison, the largest detention facility in eastern Libya, some 1,800 people are believed to be held.

      Armed groups routinely deny people any contact with the outside world when they are first detained. “Distraught families search for their detained family members, travel to known detention facilities, plead for the help of acquaintances with connections to armed groups, security or intelligence bodies, and exchange information with other families of detainees or missing persons,” the report highlights.

      There have also been consistent allegations of deaths in custody. The bodies of hundreds of individuals taken and held by armed groups have been uncovered in streets, hospitals, and rubbish dumps, many with bound limbs and marks of torture and gunshot wounds.

      “The widespread prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention and endemic human rights abuses in custody in Libya require urgent action by the Libyan authorities, with support from the international community,” the report says. Such action needs to provide redress to victims and their families, and to prevent the repetition of such crimes.

      “As a first step, the State and non-State actors that effectively control territory and exercise government-like functions must release those detained arbitrarily or otherwise unlawfully deprived of their liberty. All those lawfully detained must be transferred to official prisons under effective and exclusive State control,” it says.

      The report calls on the authorities to publicly and unequivocally condemn torture, ill-treatment and summary executions of those detained, and ensure accountability for such crimes.

      “Failure to act will not only inflict additional suffering on thousands of detainees and their families and lead to further loss of life. It will also be detrimental to any stabilization, peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts,” it concludes.

      http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22931&LangID=E

      Lien vers le #rapport du #OHCHR :


      http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LY/AbuseBehindBarsArbitraryUnlawful_EN.pdf
      #détention_arbitraire #torture #décès #morts #détention

    • L’inferno libico nelle poesie di #Segen

      #Tesfalidet_Tesfom è il vero nome del migrante eritreo morto il giorno dopo il suo sbarco a Pozzallo del 12 marzo dalla nave Proactiva della ong spagnola Open Arms. Dopo aver lottato tra la vita e la morte all’ospedale maggiore di Modica nel suo portafogli sono state ritrovate delle bellissime e strazianti poesie. In esclusiva su Vita.it la sua storia e le sue poesie


      http://www.vita.it/it/story/2018/04/10/linferno-libico-nelle-poesie-di-segen/210
      #poésie

      Les poésies de Segen :

      Non ti allarmare fratello mio
      Non ti allarmare fratello mio,
dimmi, non sono forse tuo fratello?

      Perché non chiedi notizie di me?
      
È davvero così bello vivere da soli,

      se dimentichi tuo fratello al momento del bisogno?
      Cerco vostre notizie e mi sento soffocare
      
non riesco a fare neanche chiamate perse,

      chiedo aiuto,
      
la vita con i suoi problemi provvisori
      
mi pesa troppo.
      Ti prego fratello, prova a comprendermi,
      
chiedo a te perché sei mio fratello,
      
ti prego aiutami,
      
perché non chiedi notizie di me, non sono forse tuo fratello?
      Nessuno mi aiuta,
      
e neanche mi consola,

      si può essere provati dalla difficoltà,
      
ma dimenticarsi del proprio fratello non fa onore,
      
il tempo vola con i suoi rimpianti,

      io non ti odio,

      ma è sempre meglio avere un fratello.
      No, non dirmi che hai scelto la solitudine,

      se esisti e perché ci sei
 con le tue false promesse,

      mentre io ti cerco sempre,
      saresti stato così crudele se fossimo stati figli dello stesso sangue?
      

Ora non ho nulla,
      
perché in questa vita nulla ho trovato,

      se porto pazienza non significa che sono sazio
      
perché chiunque avrà la sua ricompensa,
      
io e te fratello ne usciremo vittoriosi 
affidandoci a Dio.

      Tempo sei maestro
      Tempo sei maestro
      per chi ti ama e per chi ti è nemico,
      sai distiunguere il bene dal male,
      chi ti rispetta
      e chi non ti dà valore.
      Senza stancarti mi rendi forte,
      mi insegni il coraggio,
      quante salite e discese abbiamo affrontato,
      hai conquistato la vittoria
      ne hai fatto un capolavoro.
      Sei come un libro, l’archivio infinito del passato
      solo tu dirai chi aveva ragione e chi torto,
      perché conosci i caratteri di ognuno,
      chi sono i furbi, chi trama alle tue spalle,
      chi cerca una scusa,
      pensando che tu non li conosci.
      Vorrei dirti ciò che non rende l’uomo
      un uomo
      finché si sta insieme tutto va bene,
      ti dice di essere il tuo compagno d’infanzia
      ma nel momento del bisogno ti tradisce.
      Ogni giorno che passa, gli errori dell’uomo sono sempre di più,
      lontani dalla Pace,
      presi da Satana,
      esseri umani che non provano pietà
      o un po’ di pena,
      perché rinnegano la Pace
      e hanno scelto il male.
      Si considerano superiori, fanno finta di non sentire,
      gli piace soltanto apparire agli occhi del mondo.
      Quando ti avvicini per chiedere aiuto
      non ottieni nulla da loro,
      non provano neanche un minimo dispiacere,
      però gente mia, miei fratelli,
      una sola cosa posso dirvi:
      nulla è irragiungibile,
      sia che si ha tanto o niente,
      tutto si può risolvere
      con la fede in Dio.
      Ciao, ciao
      Vittoria agli oppressi

    • Vidéo : des migrants échappent à l’enfer libyen en lançant un appel sur #WhatsApp

      Un groupe de migrants nigérians enfermés dans un centre de détention à #Zaouïa, en Libye, est parvenu à filmer une vidéo montrant leurs conditions de vie et appelant à l’aide leur gouvernement en juillet 2018. Envoyée à un ami sur WhatsApp, elle est devenue virale et a été transmise aux Observateurs de France 24. L’organisation internationale pour les migrations a ensuite pu organiser un vol pour les rapatrier au Nigéria. Aujourd’hui sains et saufs, ils racontent ce qu’ils ont vécu.


      http://observers.france24.com/fr/20180928-libye-nigeria-migrants-appel-whatsapp-secours-oim-video
      #réseaux_sociaux #téléphone_portable #smartphone

      Commentaire de Emmanuel Blanchard via la mailing-list Migreurop :

      Au-delà du caractère exceptionnel et « spectaculaire » de cette vidéo, l’article montre bien en creux que les Etats européens et l’#OIM cautionnent et financent de véritables #geôles, sinon des centre de tortures. Le #centre_de_détention #Al_Nasr n’est en effet pas une de ces prisons clandestines tenues par des trafiquant d’êtres humains. Si les institutions et le droit ont un sens en Libye, ce centre est en effet « chapeauté par le gouvernement d’entente nationale libyen – soutenu par l’Occident – via son service de combat contre l’immigration illégale (#DCIM) ». L’OIM y effectue d’ailleurs régulièrement des actions humanitaires et semble y organiser des opérations de retour, telles qu’elles sont préconisées par les Etats européens voulant rendre hermétiques leurs frontières sud.
      Quant au DCIM, je ne sais pas si son budget est précisément connu mais il ne serait pas étonnant qu’il soit abondé par des fonds (d’Etats) européens.

      #IOM

    • ’He died two times’: African migrants face death in Libyan detention centres

      Most of those held in indefinite detention were intercepted in the Mediterranean by EU-funded Libyan coastguard.

      Four young refugees have died in Libya’s Zintan migrant detention centre since mid-September, according to other detainees, who say extremely poor conditions, including a lack of food and medical treatment, led to the deaths.

      The fatalities included a 22-year-old Eritrean man, who died last weekend, according to two people who knew him.

      Most of the refugees detained in centres run by Libya’s #Department_for-Combatting_Illegal_Immigration (#DCIM) were returned to Libya by the EU-backed coastguard, after trying to reach Europe this year.

      The centre in #Zintan, 180 km southwest of Tripoli, was one of the locations the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) moved refugees and migrants to after clashes broke out in the capital in August. Nearly 1,400 refugees and migrants were being held there in mid-September, according to UNHCR.

      “At this detention centre, we are almost forgotten,” detainee there said on Wednesday.

      Other aid organisations, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), criticised the decision to move detainees out of Tripoli at the time.

      “Transferring detainees from one detention centre to another within the same conflict zone cannot be described as an evacuation and it is certainly not a solution,” MSF Libya head of mission Ibrahim Younis said. “The resources and mechanisms exist to bring these people to third countries where their claims for asylum or repatriation can be duly processed. That’s what needs to happen right now, without delay. This is about saving lives.”

      UNHCR couldn’t confirm the reports, but Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, Vincent Cochetel, said: “I am saddened by the news of the alleged death of migrants and refugees in detention. Renewed efforts must be made by the Libyan authorities to provide alternatives to detention, to ensure that people are not detained arbitrarily and benefit from the legal safeguards and standards of treatment contained in the Libyan legislation and relevant international instruments Libya is party to.”

      The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which also works in Libya, did not respond to a request for confirmation or comment. DCIM was not reachable.

      Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have been locked in indefinite detention by Libyan authorities since Italy and Libya entered into a deal in February 2017, aimed at stopping Africans from reaching Europe across the Mediterranean.

      People in the centres are consistently deprived of food and water, according to more than a dozen detainees in touch with The National from centres across Tripoli. One centre holding more than 200 people has gone the last eight days without food, according to a man being held there.

      Sanitation facilities are poor and severe overcrowding is common. Though the majority of detainees are teenagers or in their twenties, many suffer from ongoing health problems caused or exacerbated by the conditions.

      Aid agencies and researchers in Libya say the lack of a centralised registration system for detainees makes it impossible to track the number of deaths that are happening across “official” Libyan detention centres.

      Earlier this month, a man in his twenties died in Triq al Sikka detention centre in Tripoli, Libya, from an illness that was either caused or exacerbated by the harsh conditions in the centre, as well as a lack of medical attention, according to two fellow detainees.

      One detainee in Triq al Sikka told The National that six others have died there this year, two after being taken to hospital and the rest inside the centre. Four were Eritrean, and three, including a woman, were from Somalia.

      Another former detainee from the same centre told The National he believes the death toll is much higher than that. Earlier this year, the Eritrean man said he tried to tell a UNHCR staff member about the deaths through the bars of the cell he was being held in, but he wasn’t sure if she was listening. The National received no response after contacting the staff member he named.


      https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/he-died-two-times-african-migrants-face-death-in-libyan-detention-centre

    • Migranti torturati, violentati e lasciati morire in un centro di detenzione della polizia in Libia, tre fermi a Messina

      A riconoscere e denunciare i carcerieri sono state alcune delle vittime, arrivate in Italia con la nave Alex di Mediterranea. Per la prima volta viene contestato il reato di tortura. Patronaggio: «Crimini contro l’umanità, agire a livello internazionale». Gli orrori a #Zawiya, in una struttura ufficiale gestita dalle forze dell’ordine di Tripoli

      https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2019/09/16/news/migranti_torture_sui_profughi_in_libia_tre_fermi_a_messina-236123857
      #crimes_contre_l'humanité #viols #justice

    • Torture, rape and murder: inside Tripoli’s refugee detention camps

      Europe poured in aid to help migrants in Libya – but for thousands, life is still hellish and many prefer to risk staying on the streets

      Men press anxious faces against the chicken-wire fence of Triq-al-Sikka migrant detention camp in downtown Tripoli as I enter. “Welcome to hell,” says a Moroccan man, without a smile.

      Triq-al-Sikka is home to 300 men penned into nightmare conditions. Several who are sick lie motionless on dirty mattresses in the yard, left to die or recover in their own time. Three of the six toilets are blocked with sewage, and for many detainees, escape is out of the question as they have no shoes.

      It wasn’t supposed to be this way. After reports of torture and abuse in detention centres, and wanting to stop the flow of people across the Mediterranean, the European Union has since 2016 poured more than £110m into improving conditions for migrants in Libya. But things are now worse than before.

      Among the inmates is Mohammed, from Ghana. In July, he survived an air strike on another centre, in Tajoura on the capital’s south-western outskirts, that killed 53 of his fellow migrants. After surviving on the streets, last month he got a place on a rickety smuggler boat heading for Europe. But it was intercepted by the coastguard. Mohammed fell into the sea and was brought back to this camp. His blue jumper is still stained by sea salt. He is desperate to get word to his wife. “The last time we spoke was the night I tried to cross the sea,” he says. “The soldiers took my money and phone. My wife does not know where I am, whether I am alive or dead.”

      Triq-al-Sikka’s conditions are harsh, but other centres are worse. Inmates tell of camps where militias storm in at night, dragging migrants away to be ransomed back to their families. Tens of thousands of migrants are spread across this city, many sleeping in the streets. Dozens bed down each night under the arches of the city centre’s freeway. Since April, in a sharp escalation of the civil war, eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar has been trying to batter his way into the city in fighting that has left more than 1,000 dead and left tens of thousands of citizens homeless.

      Libya has known nothing but chaos since the 2011 revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi. In 2014, a multi-sided civil war broke out. Taking advantage of this chaos, smugglers transformed Libya into a hub for migrants from three continents trying to reach Europe. But after more than half a million arrivals, European governments have tightened the rules.

      This clampdown is obvious at the gates of a nondescript fenced compound holding white shipping containers in the city centre. It is the UN’s refugee Gathering and Departure Facility, nicknamed Hotel GDF by the migrants. From here, a select few who qualify for asylum get flights via Niger and Rwanda to Europe. But there are 45,000 registered migrants, and in the past year only 2,300 seats on flights for migrants – which have now stopped altogether, with Europe offering no more places. Yet dozens line up outside each day hoping for that magical plane ticket.

      Among those clustered at the fence is Nafisa Saed Musa, 44, who has been a refugee for more than half her life: In 2003, her village in Sudan’s Darfur region was burned down. Her husband and two of her three sons were killed and she fled. After years spent in a series of African refugee camps with her son Abdullah, 27, she joined last year with 14 other Sudanese families, pooling their money, and headed for Libya.

      In southern Libya, Abdullah was arrested by a militia who demanded 5,000 dinars (£2,700) to release him. It took two months to raise the cash, and Abdullah shows marks of torture inflicted on him, some with a branding iron, some with cigarettes. They all left a charity shelter after local residents complained about the presence of migrants, and now Nafisa and her son sleep on the street on dirty mattresses, scrounging cardboard to protect from the autumnal rains, across the street from Hotel GDF. “I have only one dream: a dignified life. I dream of Europe for my son.”

      Nearby is Namia, from Sudan, cradling her six-month-old baby daughter, clad in a pink and white babygrow. Her husband was kidnapped by a militia in February and never seen again and she makes frequent trips here asking the UN to look for him. “I hope he is in a detention centre, I hope he is alive.”

      Last week, 200 migrants, kicked out of a detention camp in the south of Tripoli, marched on Hotel GDF and forced their way inside, joining 800 already camped there, in a base designed to hold a maximum of 600.

      The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which administers the centre, says it has no more flights, unless outside states offer asylum places: “We cannot reinforce the asylum systems there because it is a country at war,” says UNHCR official Filippo Grandi.

      Meanwhile, escape by sea is being closed off, thanks to a controversial deal Italy made with Libya two years ago, in which Rome has paid €90m to train the coastguard. The deal has drastically cut arrivals in Italy from 181,000 in 2016 to 9,300 so far this year, with the coastguard intercepting most smuggling craft and sending migrants on board to detention camps.

      “We have collected testimonies of torture, rape and murder in detention camps,” says Oxfam’s Paolo Pezzati. “The agreement the Italian government signed with Libya in February 2017 has allowed these untold violations.”

      Rome has faced criticism because among the coastguard leaders whose units it funds is Abd al-Rahman Milad, despite his being accused by the UN of being involved in sinking migrant boats and collaborating with people-smugglers. Tripoli says it issued an arrest warrant against him in April, but this is news to Milad. Bearded, well-built and uniformed, he tells me he is back at work and is innocent: “I have nothing to do with trafficking, I am one of the best coastguards in Libya.”

      For migrants and Libyans alike, the outside world’s attitude is a puzzle: it sends aid and scolds Libya for mistreatment, yet offers no way out for migrants. “You see [UN officials] on television, shouting that they no longer want to see people die at sea. I wonder what is the difference between seeing them dying in the sea and letting them die in the middle of a street?” says Libyan Red Crescent worker Assad al-Jafeer, who tours the streets offering aid to migrants. “The men risk being kidnapped and forced to fight by militias, the women risk being taken away and sexually abused.”

      Recent weeks have seen nightly bombing in an air war waged with drones. Women, fearing rape, often sleep on the streets close to police stations for safety, but this brings new danger. “They think 50 metres from a police base is close enough to protect themselves,” says al-Jafeer. “But they are the first targets to be bombed.”

      Interior ministry official Mabrouk Abdelahfid was appointed six months ago and tasked with closing or improving detention centres, but admits reform is slow. He says many camps are outside government control and that the UN has provided no alternative housing for migrants when camps close: “We have already closed three [detention] centres. We believe that in the nine centres under our formal control there are more or less 6,000 people.”

      A common theme among migrants here is a crushing sense of being unwanted and of no value, seen even by aid agencies as an inconvenience. For now, migrants can only endure, with no end in sight for the war. Haftar and Tripoli’s defenders continue slugging it out along a front line snaking through the southern suburbs and few diplomats expect a breakthrough at peace talks being hosted in Berlin later this month.

      Outside Hotel GDF, dusk signals the end of another day with no news of flights and the migrants trudge away to sleep on the streets. To the south, the flashes from the night’s bombardment light up the sky.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/03/libya-migrants-tripoli-refugees-detention-camps?CMP=share_btn_tw

    • Torture nei campi di detenzione: le nuove immagini choc

      Donna appesa a testa in giù e presa a bastonate: le cronache dell’orrore dal lager di #Bani_Walid, in Libia. Sei morti in due mesi. Spuntano i nomi degli schiavisti: «Ci stuprano e ci uccidono»

      Una giovane eritrea appesa a testa in giù urla mentre viene bastonata ripetutamente nella «#black_room», la sala delle torture presente in molti centri libici per migranti. Il video choc - di cui riportiamo solo alcuni fermo immagine - è stato spedito via smartphone ai familiari della sventurata che devono trovare i soldi per riscattarla e salvarle la vita.
      È quello che accade a Bani Walid, centro di detenzione informale, in mano alle milizie libiche. Ma anche nei centri ufficiali di detenzione, dove i detenuti sono sotto la «protezione» delle autorità di Tripoli pagata dall’Ue e dall’Italia: la situazione sta precipitando con cibo scarso, nessuna assistenza medica, corruzione. In Libia l’Unhcr ha registrato 40mila rifugiati e richiedenti asilo, 6mila dei quali sono rinchiusi nel sistema formato dai 12 centri di detenzione ufficiali, il resto in centri come Bani Walid o in strada. In tutto, stima il «Global detention project», vi sarebbero 33 galere. Vi sono anche detenuti soprattutto africani non registrati la cui stima è impossibile.

      La vita della ragazza del Corno d’Africa appesa, lo abbiamo scritto sette giorni fa, vale 12.500 dollari. Ma nessuno interviene e continuano le cronache dell’orrore da Bani Walid, unanimente considerato il più crudele luogo di tortura della Libia. Un altro detenuto eritreo è morto qui negli ultimi giorni per le torture inferte con bastone, coltello e scariche elettriche perché non poteva pagare. In tutto fanno sei morti in due mesi. Stavolta non siamo riusciti a conoscere le sue generalità e a dargli almeno dignità nella morte. Quando si apre la connessione con l’inferno vicino a noi, arrivano sullo smartphone con il ronzio di un messaggio foto disumane e disperate richieste di aiuto, parole di angoscia e terrore che in Italia e nella Ue abbiamo ignorato girando la testa o incolpando addirittura le vittime.

      «Mangiamo un pane al giorno e uno alla sera, beviamo un bicchiere d’acqua sporca a testa. Non ci sono bagni», scrive uno di loro in un inglese stentato. «Fate in fretta, aiutateci, siamo allo stremo», prosegue. Il gruppo dei 66 prigionieri eritrei che da oltre due mesi è nelle mani dei trafficanti libici si è ridotto a 60 persone stipate nel gruppo di capannoni che formano il mega centro di detenzione in campagna nel quartiere di Tasni al Harbi, alla periferia della città della tribù dei Warfalla, situata nel distretto di Misurata, circa 150 chilometri a sud-est di Tripoli. Lager di proprietà dei trafficanti, inaccessibile all’Unhcr in un crocevia delle rotte migratorie da sud (Sebha) ed est (Kufra) per raggiungere la costa, dove quasi tutti i migranti in Libia si sono fermati e hanno pagato un riscatto per imbarcarsi. Lo conferma lo studio sulla politica economica dei centri di detenzione in Libia commissionato dall’Ue e condotto da «Global Initiative against transnational organized crime» con l’unico mezzo per ora disponibile, le testimonianze dei migranti arrivati in Europa.

      I sequestratori, ci hanno più volte confermato i rifugiati di Eritrea democratica contattati per primi dai connazionali prigionieri, li hanno comperati dal trafficante eritreo Abuselam «Ferensawi», il francese, uno dei maggiori mercanti di carne umana in Libia oggi sparito probabilmente in Qatar per godersi i proventi dei suoi crimini. Bani Walid, in base alle testimonianze raccolte anche dall’avvocato italiano stanziato a Londra Giulia Tranchina, è un grande serbatoio di carne umana proveniente da ogni parte dell’Africa, dove i prigionieri vengono separati per nazionalità. Il prezzo del riscatto varia per provenienza e sta salendo in vista del conflitto. Gli africani del Corno valgono di più per i trafficanti perché somali ed eritrei hanno spesso parenti in occidente che sentono molto i vincoli familiari e pagano. Tre mesi fa, i prigionieri eritrei valevano 10mila dollari, oggi 2.500 dollari in più perché alla borsa della morte la quotazione di chi fugge e viene catturato o di chi prolunga la permanenza per insolvenza e viene più volte rivenduto, sale. Il pagamento va effettuato via money transfer in Sudan o in Egitto.

      Dunque quello che accade in questo bazar di esseri umani è noto alle autorità libiche, ai governi europei e all’Unhcr. Ma nessuno può o vuole fare niente. Secondo le testimonianze di alcuni prigionieri addirittura i poliziotti libici in divisa entrano in alcune costruzioni a comprare detenuti africani per farli lavorare nei campi o nei cantieri come schiavi.
      «Le otto ragazze che sono con noi – prosegue il messaggio inviato dall’inferno da uno dei 60 prigionieri eritrei – vengono picchiate e violentate. Noi non usciamo per lavorare. I carcerieri sono tre e sono libici. Il capo si chiama Hamza, l’altro si chiama Ashetaol e del terzo conosciamo solo il soprannome: Satana». Da altre testimonianze risulta che il boia sia in realtà egiziano e abbia anche un altro nome, Abdellah. Avrebbe assassinato molti detenuti.

      Ma anche nei centri di detenzione pubblici in Libia, la situazione resta perlomeno difficile. Persino nel centro Gdf di Tripoli dell’Acnur per i migranti in fase di ricollocamento gestito dal Ministero dell’Interno libico e dal partner LibAid dove i migranti lasciati liberi da altri centri per le strade della capitale libica a dicembre hanno provato invano a chiedere cibo e rifugio. Il 31 dicembre l’Associated Press ha denunciato con un’inchiesta che almeno sette milioni di euro stanziati dall’Ue per la sicurezza, sono stati intascati dal capo di una milizia e vice direttore del dipartimento libico per il contrasto all’immigrazione. Si tratta di Mohammed Kachlaf, boss del famigerato Abd Al-Rahman Al-Milad detto Bija, che avrebbe accompagnato in Italia nel viaggio documentato da Nello Scavo su Avvenire. È finito sulla lista nera dei trafficanti del consiglio di sicurezza Onu che in effetti gli ha congelato i conti.

      Ma non è servito a nulla. L’agenzia ha scoperto che metà dei dipendenti di LibAid sono prestanome a libro paga delle milizie e dei 50 dinari (35 dollari) al giorno stanziati dall’Unhcr per forniture di cibo a ciascun migrante, ne venivano spesi solamente 2 dinari mentre i pasti cucinati venìvano redistribuiti tra le guardie o immessi nel mercato nero. Secondo l’inchiesta i danari inoltre venivano erogati a società di subappalto libiche gestite dai miliziani con conti correnti in Tunisia, dove venivano cambiati in valuta locale e riciclati. Una email interna dell’agenzia delle Nazioni Unite rivela come tutti ne fossero al corrente, ma non potessero intervenire. L’Acnur ha detto di aver eliminato dal primo gennaio il sistema dei subappalti.

      https://www.avvenire.it/attualita/pagine/torture-libia

  • Turkey: UN expert says deeply concerned by rise in torture allegations

    The UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, expressed serious concerns about the rising allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in Turkish police custody since the end of his official visit to the country in December 2016.

    Melzer said he was alarmed by allegations that large numbers of individuals suspected of links to the Gülenist Movement or the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party were exposed to brutal interrogation techniques aimed at extracting forced confessions or coercing detainees to incriminate others.

    Reported abuse included severe beatings, electrical shocks, exposure to icy water, sleep deprivation, threats, insults and sexual assault.

    The Special Rapporteur said no serious measures appeared to have been taken by the authorities to investigate these allegations or to hold perpetrators accountable.

    Instead, complaints asserting torture were allegedly dismissed by the prosecutor citing a ‘state of emergency decree (Article 9 of Decree no. 667)’ which reportedly exempts public officials from criminal responsibility for acts undertaken in the context of the state of emergency.

    "The human right to be free from torture and other ill-treatment is absolute and non-derogable, and continues to apply in all situations of political instability or any other public emergency,” the Special Rapporteur said. No circumstances, however exceptional and well argued, can ever justify torture or any form of impunity for such abuse.

    "Torture is not only a notoriously ineffective interrogation method, but it constitutes the most fundamental assault on human dignity and is invariably listed among the most serious international crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

    Melzer said by inviting his mandate to visit the country in December 2016, soon after an attempted coup, the Government had demonstrated its commitment to its official “zero tolerance” policy on torture.

    "However, the authorities’ failure to publicly condemn torture and ill-treatment, and to enforce the universal prohibition of such abuse in daily practice seems to have fostered a climate of impunity, complacency and acquiescence which gravely undermines that prohibition and, ultimately, the rule of law,” he said.

    The Special Rapporteur also said he remained keen to engage in a “direct and constructive dialogue” with the Turkish authorities to achieve full implementation of the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment.

    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22718&LangID=E
    #torture #Turquie #répression

  • OHCHR | UN rights experts alarmed by detention of Palestinian girl for slapping Israeli soldier
    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22654&LangID=E

    “The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel has ratified, clearly states that children are to be deprived of their liberty only as a last resort, and only for the shortest appropriate period of time,” said Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.

    None of the facts of this case would appear to justify her ongoing detention prior to her trial, particularly given the concerns expressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child about the use of pre-trial detention and detention on remand.”

    [...]

    They noted that Tamimi was arrested in the middle of the night by well-armed soldiers, and then questioned by Israeli security officials without a lawyer or family members present. “This violates the fundamental legal guarantee to have access to counsel during interrogation,” said José Guevara, Chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

    The experts also expressed concern about her place of detention - Hasharon prison in Israel - in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that the deportation of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power, or to that of any other country, is prohibited, regardless of the motive.

    “Sadly, this is not an isolated case,” said Lynk. “Figures from Palestine show that Israel detains and prosecutes between 500 to 700 Palestinian children in military courts annually.

    “We have received reports that these children are commonly mistreated while in detention, subjected to both physical and psychological abuse , deprived of access to lawyers or family members during interrogation, and tried under a military court system in which there are significant concerns regarding independence and impartiality, and which has a worryingly high conviction rate.” In this respect, the experts referred to various opinions on Israel adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which have emphasized the right of children to be tried by a juvenile justice system rather than before military tribunals, in accordance with relevant international human rights law.

    #Crimes #Israel #impunité #Tamimi #enfants

  • Asaf Ronel on Twitter : "Breaking by BarakRavid : under US & Israeli pressure, @UNHumanRights commissioner will delay publishing of « black list » of companies working in the West Bank settlements until further notice https://t.co/IDZFcoiWdv"
    https://mobile.twitter.com/AsafRonel/status/958681548219342850

    Officiellement, les reports successifs sont dus à « l’ampleur de la tâche » et le manque de « ressources »
    https://24heures.ch/monde/deux-boites-suisses-operent-illegalite/story/11111138

    Le premier rapport incluant la liste des noms des entreprises concernées par ces activités aurait dû être publié en mars 2017 mais au regard de l’ampleur de la tâche, le bureau du Haut-Commissaire avait obtenu une extension du délai jusqu’à fin 2017, en vue d’une présentation au Conseil en mars 2018.

    Le Haut-Commissariat indique par ailleurs que seules 64 des 206 entreprises ont pu être contactées pour l’instant, faute de moyens. Une fois qu’il aura pu les contacter toutes, « et sous réserve de leur (...) réponse ou non-réponse, le Haut-Commissariat prévoit de fournir les noms des sociétés », indique-t-il. Mais pour que cette base de données soit finalisée, « il faut plus de ressources ».

    #ONU #sans_vergogne #Israel #Etats-Unis #états_voyous #Palestine

  • OHCHR | “US must stop policy of impunity for the crime of torture"- UN rights expert
    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22532&LangID=E

    Un rapporteur de l’#ONU dénonce « l’#impunité » des auteurs de #torture aux #États-Unis | TVA Nouvelles
    http://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2017/12/13/un-rapporteur-de-lonu-denonce-limpunite-des-auteurs-de-torture-aux-etat
    http://storage.tvanouvelles.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/tvanouvelles_prod/55ccd994-7b99-4a48-8618-7a3db97ad048/filesusespionagecomputershackingciawikileaks_16x9_WEB.jpg?quali

    Dans un communiqué, le rapporteur spécial Nils Melzer rappelle qu’un rapport de la commission du Renseignement du Sénat américain reconnaissait en 2014 que la #CIA avait eu recours à des pratiques assimilables à des tortures pour les interrogatoires de jihadistes dans ses sites secrets après les attaques du 11 septembre 2001.

    « À ce jour cependant, les auteurs et les politiques responsables de ces abus horribles n’ont pas été traduits devant la justice et les victimes n’ont pas reçu de compensations ni n’ont été réhabilitées », affirme-t-il.

    « Les États-Unis se trouvent en violation manifeste de la Convention contre la torture », estime le rapporteur spécial, selon lequel Washington « envoie un message dangereux de complaisance et d’impunité » aux États-Unis et dans le monde ».

  • HCDH | UN expert on extreme poverty and human rights to visit USA, one of the wealthiest countries in the world
    http://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22465&LangID=E

    Les #États-Unis exigent des autres pays (ou plutôt des pays qui ne leur sont pas inféodés) le respect de droits humains qu’eux-mêmes refusent formellement de respecter.

    “Some might ask why a UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights would visit a country as rich as the United States. But despite great wealth in the US, there also exists great poverty and inequality,” said Mr. Alston.

    “I would like to focus on how poverty affects the civil and political rights of people living within the US, given the United States’ consistent emphasis on the importance it attaches to these rights in its foreign policy , and given that it has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

    Why the UN is investigating extreme poverty … in America, the world’s richest nation | World news | The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/01/un-extreme-poverty-america-special-rapporteur

    The US poses an especially challenging subject for the UN special rapporteur because unlike all other industrialized nations, it fails to recognize fundamental social and economic rights such as the right to healthcare, a roof over your head or food to keep hunger at bay. The federal government has consistently refused to sign up to the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights – arguing that these matters are best left to individual states.

  • Israeli minister to push plan aimed at reducing number of Arabs in Jerusalem - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.819566
    https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.819564.1509218424!/image/685357042.PNG_gen/derivatives/size_1496xAuto/685357042.PNG

    #Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin has unveiled his proposal for the municipal division of Jerusalem, which would see several Arab neighborhoods beyond the West Bank separation barrier split off from the Jerusalem municipality and be placed under the jurisdiction of one or more new council administrations.

    #colonisation #israël #palestine #confiscation #dépossession

  • Comment by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights #Zeid_Ra'ad_Al_Hussein on the situation in Catalonia, Spain

    I am very disturbed by the violence in Catalonia on Sunday. With hundreds of people reported injured, I urge the Spanish authorities to ensure thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all acts of #violence. Police responses must at all times be proportionate and necessary.

    I firmly believe that the current situation should be resolved through political dialogue, with full respect for democratic freedoms.

    I call on the Government of Spain to accept without delay the requests by relevant UN human rights experts to visit.

    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22192&LangID=E
    #catalogne #référendum #Catalogne #Espagne #violences_policières #enquête

  • There are no camps" in #Libya, only detention centres. Need to protect refugees, migrants before they get there


    Déclaration de #Cochetel, publiée sur twitter le 18.07.2017
    https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/887339785081237506

    #terminologie #mots #vocabulaire #camps #centres_de_détention #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Libye #détention #centres

    No detention centres in Libya, just ’prisons’ - UNHCR

    “We can hope that one day there will be decent and open centres, but now they don’t exist,” Cochetel said.

    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/08/04/no-detention-centres-in-libya-just-prisons-unhcr-2_7aba4a80-8178-42b8-9095-f074

    @sinehebdo : la question de la #terminologie est évoquée deux fois :
    – dans le tweet : « Need to protect refugees , migrants before they get there »
    – et puis sur les #camps/#centres_de_détention en Libye

    #cpa_camps

    • Noury (Amnesty Italia): «I centri d’accoglienza in Libia sono in realtà prigioni»

      «Esatto, senza considerare poi che i centri d’accoglienza libici dove verrebbero condotti i respinti sono in realtà delle prigioni, alcune delle quali informali, magari vecchi capannoni industriali, o alberghi, o addirittura case private. Chiamarli “centri d’accoglienza” è del tutto sbagliato, sono luoghi di detenzione nei quali non c’è alcuna garanzia per l’incolumità fisica delle persone. Sappiamo che avvengono stupri e torture quotidianamente, ci sono prigionieri detenuti in ostaggio fino a quando i familiari non pagano, prigionieri venduti da una banda criminale all’altra. E, se noi contribuiamo a rafforzare questo sistema illegale, ne siamo pienamente complici.

      https://left.it/2017/08/12/noury-amnesty-italia-i-centri-daccoglienza-in-libia-sono-in-realta-prigioni

    • Rescue ship says Libyan coast guard shot at and boarded it, seeking migrants

      A Libyan coast guard vessel fired shots and boarded a humanitarian ship in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, demanding that the migrants on board be handed over to them, a spokesman for the Mission Lifeline charity said.

      “The Libyan man said: ‘This is our territory,’” said Axel Steier, a spokesman for the German-based charity that performed its first rescues on Tuesday.

      “After a while, they fired shots,” he said, probably into the air or sea. No one was wounded.

      Afterward two Libyans boarded the Lifeline ship to try to persuade them to hand over some 70 migrants they had just taken off a wooden boat in international waters.

      “We told them we don’t return migrants to Libya. After a while, they gave up,” Steier said. The two men spent about 15 minutes on board, he said.

      A Libyan coast guard spokesman in Tripoli declined to comment, saying he was seeking information. Italy’s coast guard, which coordinates rescues, did not respond to repeated telephone calls.

      It was the latest incident reported between the Libyan coast guard and humanitarian rescue ships operating off North Africa. Financed, trained and equipped by Italy, the Tripoli-based coastguard is intercepting a growing number of migrant boats.

      http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-libya-ngo/rescue-ship-says-libyan-coast-guard-shot-at-and-boarded-it-seeking-migrants
      #Méditerranée #gardes-côtes

    • Quei campi libici sono irriformabili

      Hai voglia di annunciare bandi, di investire qualche milione di euro per rendere vivibile ciò che vivibile non è. Perché i lager libici sono come il socialismo reale: irriformabili. In discussione non sono le buone intenzioni che animano il vice ministro degli Esteri con delega per la Cooperazione internazionale, Mario Giro: per lui parla il lungo impegno in favore della pace e della giustizia sociale per l’Africa e il fatto, politicamente significativo, che nell’estate dominata dalla «caccia» alle Ong e da una ondata securista, Giro è stata una delle poche voci alzatesi tra le fila del governo per ricordare a tutti che i migranti intercettati sulla rotta del Mediterraneo venivano ricacciati nell’"inferno libico".

      http://www.huffingtonpost.it/umberto-de-giovannangeli/quei-campi-libici-sono-irriformabili_a_23225947

    • L’Onu vuole aprire un centro di transito per i profughi in Libia

      Un contingente di 250 guardie di sicurezza nepalesi arriverà in Libia in questi giorni per garantire sicurezza alla base militare dell’Onu di Tripoli. Se tutto andrà come previsto, spiega Roberto Mignone, capomissione dell’Alto commissariato delle Nazioni Unite per i rifugiati (Unhcr), all’inizio di novembre anche il personale internazionale dell’organizzazione, che dal 2014 si è spostato a Tunisi per ragioni di sicurezza, potrebbe tornare in Libia in pianta stabile.

      https://www.internazionale.it/bloc-notes/annalisa-camilli/2017/09/29/onu-libia-centro-profughi
      #centre_de_transit

    • UN human rights chief: Suffering of migrants in Libya outrage to conscience of humanity

      “The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya, and pretend that the situation can be remedied only by improving conditions in detention,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said, calling for the creation of domestic legal measures and the decriminalisation of irregular migration to ensure the protection of migrants’ human rights.

      http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22393&LangID=E

    • Cet extrait tiré d’un article du Sole 24 Ore (journal italien plutôt tourné économie et finance) est quand même assez incroyable, surtout le début, ce « certo »( « certes »)...

      Certes... il y a toujours le problème des centres de détention dans un pays qui n’a pas signé la convention de Genève, mais certaines ONG italiennes sont en train d’entrer dans les centres pour vérifier le respect des principes humanitaires basiques...
      dit l’article... « certes »...

      Certo, resta sempre il problema dei centri di detenzione in un Paese che non ha firmato la convenzione di Ginevra, ma alcune Ong italiane stanno entrando nei centri per verificare il rispetto dei più elementari principi umanitari. Sarebbero oltre 700mila i migranti identificati in Libia tra gennaio e febbraio dall’Oim, l’Organizzazione internazionale per le migrazioni. Ma non ci sono numeri precisi (si parla di altri 300 o 400mila migranti) sparsi in Libia in condizioni anche peggiori dei centri. Per il 63% si tratta di giovani provenienti dall’Africa sub-sahariana, per il 29% da quella settentrionale e per l’8% da Medio Oriente e Asia.


      http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/mondo/2018-02-24/libia-e-niger-bilancio-dell-italia-e-l-eredita-il-prossimo-governo--212

      A mettre en lien, comme le suggère @isskein sur FB, avec cet autre article publié l’été passé :

      Italy minister sees light at the end of the tunnel on migrant flows

      Italy’s interior minister said on Tuesday (15 August) he saw light at the end of the tunnel for curbing migrant flows from Libya after a slowdown in arrivals across the Mediterranean in recent months.

      https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/italy-minister-sees-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-on-migrant-flows

    • Campi libici, l’inferno nel deserto. La sentenza della Corte di assise di Milano

      La qualità delle indagini e della loro resa dibattimentale, insieme alla ritenuta credibilità delle dichiarazioni delle persone offese, ha confermato, secondo i giudici dell’assise, un contesto di privazione della libertà dei migranti e di violenze di ogni tipo che scolpisce una realtà che per la sorte dei diritti umani è fondamentale non ignorare.

      http://questionegiustizia.it/articolo/campi-libici-l-inferno-nel-deserto-la-sentenza-della-corte-di-ass

    • « Je voudrais faire comprendre qu’une fois entrée dans ce système de traite humaine et de rançonnage, une personne ne peut en sortir qu’en se jetant à la mer. Elle y est poussée. On ne passe plus par ce pays [la Libye], on en réchappe : Yacouba ne cherchait plus à se rendre en Europe, il voulait juste ne pas mourir en Libye. Les migrants qui embarquent sur les zodiacs ont été ballottés de ghetto en ghetto, placés en détention durant plusieurs mois. Maltraités, dépouillés, leurs corps épuisés sont alors portés par le seul espoir de retrouver un semblant de dignité sur le ’continent des droits de l’homme’. »

      Source : Samuel GRATACAP, in Manon PAULIC, « Ce que l’Europe refuse de voir », Le 1, n°188, 7 février 2018, p.3.

    • Libya: Shameful EU policies fuel surge in detention of migrants and refugees

      A surge in migrants and refugees intercepted at sea by the Libyan authorities has seen at least 2,600 people transferred, in the past two months alone, to squalid detention centres where they face torture and extortion, Amnesty International said today.

      The global human rights organisation accuses European governments of complicity in these abuses by actively supporting the Libyan authorities in stopping sea crossings and sending people back to detention centres in Libya.

      “The EU is turning a blind eye to the suffering caused by its callous immigration policies that outsource border control to Libya,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director.

      https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/libya-shameful-eu-policies-fuel-surge-in-detention-of-migrants-and-refugees

    • Ne dites pas que ce sont des #camps !

      Bien sûr, tous ces #centres_fermés de rassemblement de migrants ne peuvent pas être appelés camps. Cela évoquerait des images effrayantes : les camps de concentration nazis, le système des goulags soviétiques, les camps de réfugiés palestiniens de plusieurs générations, le camp de détention de Guantánamo.

      Non, en Allemagne, ces « #non-prisons » devraient être appelées « #centres_de_transit ». Un terme amical, efficace, pratique, comme la zone de transit d’un aéroport où les voyageurs changent d’avion. Un terme inventé par les mêmes personnes qui désignent le fait d’échapper à la guerre et à la pauvreté comme du « #tourisme_d’asile ». Les responsables politiques de l’UE sont encore indécis quant à la terminologie de leurs camps. On a pu lire le terme de « #centres_de_protection » mais aussi celui de « #plateformes_d’atterrissage_et_de_débarquement », ce qui fait penser à une aventure et à un voyage en mer.

      Tout cela est du #vernis_linguistique. La réalité est que l’Europe en est maintenant à créer des camps fermés et surveillés pour des personnes qui n’ont pas commis de crime. Les camps vont devenir quelque chose qui s’inscrit dans le quotidien, quelque chose de normal. Si possible dans des endroits lointains et horribles, si nécessaire sur place. Enfermer, compter, enregistrer.

      https://www.tdg.ch/monde/europe/dites-camps/story/31177430

    • Cruel European migration policies leave refugees trapped in Libya with no way out

      A year after shocking images purporting to show human beings being bought and sold in Libya caused a global outcry, the situation for migrants and refugees in the country remains bleak and in some respects has worsened, said Amnesty International.

      Findings published by the organization today highlight how EU member states’ policies to curb migration, as well as their failure to provide sufficient resettlement places for refugees, continue to fuel a cycle of abuse by trapping thousands of migrants and refugees in appalling conditions in Libyan detention centres.

      “One year after video footage showing human beings being bought and sold like merchandise shocked the world, the situation for refugees and migrants in Libya remains bleak,” said Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa Director for Amnesty International.

      “Cruel policies by EU states to stop people arriving on European shores, coupled with their woefully insufficient support to help refugees reach safety through regular routes, means that thousands of men, women and children are trapped in Libya facing horrific abuses with no way out.”

      Migrants and refugees in Libyan detention centres are routinely exposed to torture, extortion and rape.

      One year after video footage showing human beings being bought and sold like merchandise shocked the world, the situation for refugees and migrants in Libya remains bleak
      Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa

      The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has registered 56,442 refugees and asylum seekers in Libya and has repeatedly called on European and other governments to offer resettlement to refugees stranded in Libya, including through evacuation to Niger. However, only 3,886 resettlement places have been pledged by 12 countries and in total just 1,140 refugees have been resettled from Libya and Niger so far. Italy separately evacuated 312 asylum seekers from Libya directly to Italy between December 2017 and February 2018, but no further evacuations took place until the resettlement of 44 refugees on 7 November.

      Over the past two years EU member states have put in place a series of measures to block migration across the central Mediterranean, boosting the capacity of the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept sea crossings, striking deals with militias in Libya and hampering the work of NGOs carrying out search and rescue operations.

      These policies have contributed to a nearly 80% drop in the numbers crossing the central Mediterranean and arriving in Italy, from 114,415 between January and November 2017 to just 22,232 so far in 2018. There are currently around 6,000 refugees and migrants being held in detention centres in Libya.

      With the central Mediterranean sea route almost completely shut off, and the Libyan authorities keeping refugees in unlawful detention and refusing to release them to UNHCR’s care, the only way out of Libyan detention centres is through evacuation to another country via programmes run by the UN. For refugees, who cannot return to their home country, the lack of international resettlement places on offer has left thousands stranded in Libyan detention centres.

      The opening of a long promised UNHCR processing centre in Libya that would offer safety for up to 1,000 refugees by allowing them to relocate from the abusive detention centres has been repeatedly delayed. Its opening would undoubtedly be a positive step, but it would only assist a small proportion of refugees in detention and does not offer a sustainable solution.

      “At the same time as doing their utmost to stop sea crossings and helping the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept people at sea and send them back to notorious detention centres, European governments have catastrophically failed to offer other routes out of the country for those most in need,” said Heba Morayef.

      “While Europe fails to extend the desperately needed lifeline to save those stuck in Libya and at risk of abuse, it is time that the Libyan authorities take responsibility for their atrocious policies of unlawful detention and protect the human rights of all people in their territory.”

      Armed clashes in Tripoli between August and September this year have also made the situation for refugees and migrants more dangerous. Some of those held in detention centres have been wounded by stray bullets. There have also been instances where detention centre guards have fled to escape rocket attacks leaving thousands of inmates locked up without food or water.

      The publication of Amnesty’s findings is timed to coincide with a meeting of Libyan and other world leaders in the Italian city of Palermo on 12 and 13 November. This international conference is intended to find solutions to break the political stalemate in Libya. Amnesty International is calling on all those taking part in the conference to ensure that human rights of all people in the country, including refugees and migrants, are placed at the centre of their negotiations.

      https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/11/cruel-european-migration-policies-leave-refugees-trapped-in-libya-with-no-w

    • UNHCR Flash Update Libya (9 - 15 November 2018) [EN/AR]

      An estimated 5,400 refugees and migrants are presently held in detention centres in Libya, of whom 3,900 are of concern to UNHCR. Over the past month, UNHCR has registered 2,629 persons of concern in detention centres in and around Tripoli. So far in 2018, UNHCR conducted 1,139 visits to detention centres and distributed CRIs to 19,348 individuals. Through its partner International Medical Corps (IMC), UNHCR continues to provide medical assistance in detention centres in Libya. So far in 2018, IMC provided 20,070 primary health care consultations in detention centres and 237 medical referrals to public hospitals. In detention centres in the East, UNHCR’s partners have so far provided 1,058 primary health care consultations and distributed CRIs to 725 individuals.

      https://reliefweb.int/report/libya/unhcr-flash-update-libya-9-15-november-2018-enar

      #statistiques #chiffres #2018

    • Libia, i minori abusati e torturati nei centri di detenzione per migranti finanziati dall’Ue

      I minori bloccati nei centri di detenzione in Libia, finanziati anche dall’Unione europea tramite il Fondo per l’Africa, subiscono abusi e soffrono di malnutrizione, secondo quanto riportato dal Guardian.

      I bambini hanno raccontato di essere stati picchiati e maltrattati dalla polizia libica e dalle guardie del campo, descrivendo la loro vita come “un inferno in terra”.

      Secondo i dati analizzati dal Guardian, in Libia esistono 26 centri dei detenzione dei migranti, ma il numero dei minori detenuti non è chiaro in quanto non esistono registi affidabili.
      Nonostante ciò, si pensa che siano più di mille i bambini presenti nei campi di detenzione in Libia.Secondo l’Unhcr, almeno 5.400 rifugiati sono detenuti in territorio libico.

      Le rivelazioni dei bambini, che rischiano di essere puniti dalle guardie per aver parlato con i media, forniscono il resoconto più dettagliato della vita nei campi di detenzione.
      Le denunce delle Ong – A inizio di novembre Amnesty International aveva già denunciato le condizioni insostenibili in cui i migranti erano costretti a vivere, raccontando come la tortura e i maltrattamenti fossero all’ordine del giorno.

      “C’è un vero e proprio disprezzo da parte dell’Europa e di altri Stati per la sofferenza di coloro che si trovano nei centri di detenzione”, si legge nel rapporto di Amnesty.

      Un ragazzo di 16 anni ha raccontato al Guardian cosa vuol dire viver nei centri di detenzione in Libia: “Sono qui da quattro mesi. Ho cercato di scappare tre volte per attraversare il mare diretto in Italia ma ogni volta sono stato catturato e riportato al centro di detenzione”.

      “Stiamo morendo, ma nessuno se ne sta assumendo la responsabilità. Dobbiamo essere portati in un posto sicuro, invece siamo rinchiusi qui 24 ore al giorno. Non vediamo l’alba e non vediamo il tramonto “.

      I centri sono progettati per mantenere i richiedenti asilo in Libia ed evitare che attraversino il Mediterraneo diretti verso l’Europa.

      L’Ue ha investito decine di milioni di euro per cercare di impedire ai richiedenti asilo provenienti da zone di conflitto, come l’Eritrea e il Sudan, di entrare in Europa.

      Le testimonianze – Un rifugiato eritreo di 13 anni rinchiuso in un campo di Tripoli ha raccontato che i detenuti ricevono solo una o due piccole porzioni di pasta in bianco al giorno.

      Malattie come la tubercolosi sono diffuse e in molti possiedono solo una maglietta e un paio di pantaloncini, inadatte alle temperature nei centri.

      “Non abbiamo niente qui, niente cibo, niente vestiti, niente telefoni. Mi mancano così tanto mia madre e mio padre”, ha detto il ragazzo.

      Nei giorni precedenti un rifugiato di 24 anni ha cercato di impiccarsi nella toilette di uno dei campi e un altro si è dato fuoco nel campo di Triq al Sikka di Tripoli.

      Un ragazzo eritreo di 17 anni che è fuggito da un centro di detenzione e ha raggiunto il Regno Unito aveva 50 cicatrici sul suo corpo, a dimostrazione delle torture subite in Libia.

      “Quello che giovani, donne, bambini e neonati stanno soffrendo nei centri di detenzione in Libia è uno dei più grandi fallimenti della nostra civiltà”, ha affermato Giulia Tranchina, del Wilsons solicitors, che rappresenta il diciassettenne eritreo.

      “I governi europei, a nostro nome, con il nostro denaro stanno pagando le autorità libiche, le milizie e i generali dell’esercito per continuare a detenere e torturare i profughi per assicurarsi che non arrivino in Europa”.

      Una portavoce dell’UNHCR ha dichiarato: “Siamo incredibilmente preoccupati per la situazione dei profughi e dei migranti detenuti in Libia. Le condizioni di detenzione sono terribili”.

      https://mediterraneomigrante.it/2018/11/26/libia-i-minori-abusati-e-torturati-nei-centri-di-detenzione-per
      #enfants #enfance #torture #abus_sexuels #viols

    • Un #rapport de l’ONU met en lumière les «horreurs inimaginables» des migrants et réfugiés en Libye et au-delà

      Les migrants et les réfugiés sont soumis à des « horreurs inimaginables » dès leur arrivée en Libye, tout au long de leur séjour dans le pays et - s’ils parviennent à ce résultat - lors de leurs tentatives de traverser la Méditerranée, selon un rapport publié jeudi, par la mission politique des Nations Unies en Libye (#MANUL) et le Bureau des droits de l’homme des Nations Unies (HCDH).

      « Il y a un échec local et international à gérer cette calamité humaine cachée qui continue de se produire en Libye », a déclaré Ghassan Salamé, qui dirige la MINUS.

      Assassinats illégaux, détention arbitraire et tortures, viols collectifs, esclavage et traite des êtres humains, le rapport couvre une période de 20 mois jusqu’en août 2018 et détaille une terrible litanie de violations et d’exactions commises par divers agents de l’État, armés contrebandiers et trafiquants contre les migrants et les réfugiés.

      Les conclusions reposent sur 1 300 témoignages de première main recueillis par le personnel des droits de l’homme des Nations Unies en Libye, ainsi que sur des migrants qui sont rentrés au Nigéria ou ont réussi à atteindre l’Italie, retraçant tout le parcours des migrants et des réfugiés de la frontière sud de la Libye, à travers le désert jusqu’à la côte nord.

      Le climat d’anarchie en Libye fournit un terrain fertile pour les activités illicites, laissant les migrants et les réfugiés « à la merci d’innombrables prédateurs qui les considèrent comme des marchandises à exploiter et à extorquer », indique le rapport, notant que « l’écrasante majorité des femmes et des adolescentes »ont déclaré avoir été« violées par des passeurs ou des trafiquants ».
      Trafic d’êtres humains

      De nombreuses personnes sont vendues par un groupe criminel à un autre et détenues dans des centres non officiels et illégaux gérés directement par des groupes armés ou des gangs criminels.

      « D’innombrables migrants et réfugiés ont perdu la vie en captivité tués par des passeurs, après avoir été abattus, torturés à mort ou tout simplement avoir été laissés mourir de faim ou de négligence médicale », indique le rapport.

      « Dans toute la Libye, des corps non identifiés de migrants et de réfugiés portant des blessures par balle, des marques de torture et des brûlures sont fréquemment découverts dans des poubelles, des lits de rivière asséchés, des fermes et le désert. »

      Ceux qui réussissent à survivre aux abus et à l’exploitation, et à tenter la traversée périlleuse de la Méditerranée, sont de plus en plus interceptés - ou « sauvés » comme certains le prétendent - par les garde-côtes libyens. Depuis le début de 2017, les quelque 29 000 migrants renvoyés en Libye par les garde-côtes ont été placés dans des centres de détention où des milliers de personnes restent indéfiniment et arbitrairement, sans procédure régulière ni accès à un avocat ou à des services consulaires.

      Des membres du personnel de l’ONU se sont rendus dans 11 centres de détention où sont détenus des milliers de migrants et de réfugiés. Ils ont constaté des cas de torture, de mauvais traitements, de travaux forcés et de viols commis par les gardes. Les migrants retenus dans les centres sont systématiquement soumis à la famine et à des passages à tabac sévères, brûlés avec des objets chauds en métal, électrocutés et soumis à d’autres formes de mauvais traitements dans le but d’extorquer de l’argent à leurs familles par le biais d’un système complexe de transferts d’argent.
      Surpeuplement des centres de détention

      Les centres de détention se caractérisent par un surpeuplement important, un manque de ventilation et d’éclairage, et des installations de lavage et des latrines insuffisantes. Outre les exactions et les actes de violence perpétrés contre les personnes détenues, beaucoup d’entre elles souffrent de malnutrition, d’infections cutanées, de diarrhée aiguë, d’infections du tractus respiratoire et d’autres affections, ainsi que de traitements médicaux inadéquats. Les enfants sont détenus avec des adultes dans les mêmes conditions sordides.

      Le rapport signale l’apparente « complicité de certains acteurs étatiques, notamment de responsables locaux, de membres de groupes armés officiellement intégrés aux institutions de l’État et de représentants des ministères de l’Intérieur et de la Défense, dans le trafic illicite ou le trafic de migrants et de réfugiés ».

      Nils Melzer, expert indépendant des droits de l’homme des Nations Unies sur la torture, estime que, compte tenu des risques de violations des droits de l’homme dans le pays, les transferts et les retours en Libye peuvent être considérés comme une violation du principe juridique international du « non-refoulement », qui protège les demandeurs d’asile et les migrants contre le retour dans des pays où ils ont des raisons de craindre la violence ou la persécution.

      « La situation est abominablement terrible », a déclaré jeudi Michelle Bachelet, Haut-Commissaire des Nations Unies aux droits de l’homme. « Combattre l’impunité généralisée non seulement mettrait fin aux souffrances de dizaines de milliers de femmes, d’hommes et d’enfants migrants et réfugiés, à la recherche d’une vie meilleure, mais saperait également l’économie parallèle et illégale fondée sur les atteintes à ces personnes et contribuerait à l’instauration de l’état de droit et des institutions nationales ».

      Le rapport appelle les États européens à reconsidérer les coûts humains de leurs politiques et à veiller à ce que leur coopération et leur assistance aux autorités libyennes soient respectueuses des droits de l’homme et conformes au droit international des droits de l’homme et du droit des réfugiés, de manière à ne pas, directement ou indirectement, aboutir à ce que des hommes, des femmes et des enfants soient enfermés dans des situations de violence avec peu d’espoir de protection et de recours.

      https://news.un.org/fr/story/2018/12/1032271

    • Libya: Nightmarish Detention for Migrants, Asylum Seekers

      EU and Italy Bear Responsibility, Should Condition Cooperation

      (Brussels) – European Union policies contribute to a cycle of extreme abuse against migrants in Libya, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The EU and Italy’s support for the Libyan Coast Guard contributes significantly to the interception of migrants and asylum seekers and their subsequent detention in arbitrary, abusive detention in Libya.

      The 70-page report, “‘No Escape from Hell’: EU Policies Contribute to Abuse of Migrants in Libya,” documents severe overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of adequate health care. Human Rights Watch found violent abuse by guards in four official detention centers in western Libya, including beatings and whippings. Human Rights Watch witnessed large numbers of children, including newborns, detained in grossly unsuitable conditions in three out of the four detention centers. Almost 20 percent of those who reached Europe by sea from Libya in 2018 were children.

      “Migrants and asylum seekers detained in Libya, including children, are trapped in a nightmare, and what EU governments are doing perpetuates detention instead of getting people out of these abusive conditions,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe director at Human Rights Watch. “Fig-leaf efforts to improve conditions and get some people out of detention do not absolve the EU of responsibility for enabling the barbaric detention system in the first place.”

      In a letter to Human Rights Watch as the report went to print, the European Commission indicated that its dialogue with Libyan authorities has focused on respect for the human rights of migrants and refugees, that the EU’s engagement in Libya is of a humanitarian nature, and that concrete improvements have been achieved though challenges remain.

      Human Rights Watch visited the #Ain_Zara and #Tajoura detention centers in Tripoli, the al-Karareem detention center in Misrata, and the Zuwara detention center in the city of the same name in July 2018. All are under the nominal control of the Directorate to Counter Illegal Migration (DCIM) of the Government of National Accord (GNA), one of two competing authorities in Libya. Human Rights Watch spoke with over 100 detained migrants and asylum seekers, including 8 unaccompanied children, and each center’s director and senior staff. Researchers also met with the head of DCIM; senior officials of Libya’s Coast Guard, which is aligned with the GNA; and representatives of international organizations and diplomats.

      Abdul, an 18-year-old from Darfur, was intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard in May 2018, when he attempted to reach Europe to apply for asylum. He was subsequently detained in abysmal, overcrowded, and unsanitary conditions in the al-Karareem center. He said that guards beat him on the bottom of his feet with a hose to make him confess to helping three men escape. Abdul’s experience encapsulates the struggle, dashed hopes, and suffering of so many migrants and asylum seekers in Libya today, Human Rights Watch said.

      Senior officials in EU institutions and member countries are aware of the situation. In November 2017, EU migration commissioner, Dimitri Avramopoulos, said: “We are all conscious of the appalling and degrading conditions in which some migrants are held in Libya.” Yet since 2016, the EU and particular member states have poured millions of euros into programs to beef up the Libyan Coast Guard’s capacity to intercept boats leaving Libya, fully aware that everyone is then automatically detained in indefinite, arbitrary detention without judicial review.

      Italy – the EU country where the majority of migrants departing Libya have arrived – has taken the lead in providing material and technical assistance to the Libyan Coast Guard forces and abdicated virtually all responsibility for coordinating rescue operations at sea, to limit the number of people arriving on its shores. The increase in interceptions in international waters by the Libyan Coast Guard, combined with obstruction by Italy and Malta of rescue vessels operated by nongovernmental organizations, has contributed to overcrowding and deteriorating conditions in Libyan detention centers.

      Enabling the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept people in international waters and return them to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in Libya can constitute aiding or assisting in the commission of serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said. EU and member state support for programs for humanitarian assistance to detained migrants and asylum seekers and for evacuation and repatriation schemes have done little to address the systemic problems with immigration detention in Libya, and serve to cover up the injustice of the EU containment policy.

      Libyan authorities should end arbitrary immigration detention and institute alternatives to detention, improve conditions in detention centers, and ensure accountability for state and non-state actors who violate the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. The authorities should also sign a memorandum of understanding with UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, to allow it to register anyone in need of international protection, regardless of nationality, in full respect of its mandate.

      EU institutions and member states should impose clear benchmarks for improvements in the treatment of migrants and conditions in detention centers in Libya and be prepared to suspend cooperation if benchmarks are not met. The EU should also ensure and enable robust search-and-rescue operations in the central Mediterranean, including by nongovernmental groups, and significantly increase resettlement of asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants out of Libya.

      “EU leaders know how bad things are in Libya, but continue to provide political and material support to prop up a rotten system,” Sunderland said. “To avoid complicity in gross human rights abuses, Italy and its EU partners should rethink their strategy to truly press for fundamental reforms and ending automatic detention.”

      https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/21/libya-nightmarish-detention-migrants-asylum-seekers

    • L’odissea degli ultimi. Libia, nuove cronache dall’orrore

      Ancora foto choc dai campi di detenzione di #Bani_Walid, dove i trafficanti torturano e ricattano le vittime Prigionieri di criminali efferati, 150 profughi subiscono violenza da mesi.

      Le immagini provengono direttamente dall’inferno di Bani Walid, distretto di #Misurata, circa 150 chilometri a sud-est di Tripoli. Sono state mandate ai familiari dai trafficanti di esseri umani per indurli al pagamento del riscatto per rilasciarli. Da sei mesi ogni giorno i detenuti subiscono minacce, percosse, torture e le donne spesso vengono stuprate dai guardiani. Tutti hanno cicatrici e bruciature per la plastica fusa gettata su arti e schiena. Ma la cifra chiesta dai libici – 4 o 5mila dollari – è troppo alta perché i parenti hanno già dovuto pagare le diverse tappe del viaggio e ora stanno chiedendo aiuto ai conoscenti. Come ha scritto di recente anche il Corriere della Sera, nel caos libico lo scontro tra il governo centrale di Serraj e quello di Haftar, l’uomo forte della Cirenaica, ha lasciato senza paghe i dipendenti pubblici, tra cui i guardiani delle galere.


      https://dossierlibia.lasciatecientrare.it/lodissea-degli-ultimi-libia-nuove-cronache-dallorrore

    • Torture and shocking conditions: the human cost of keeping migrants out of Europe

      It’s been heralded as the start of a new dialogue. The first summit between the League of Arab States and EU member states ended with a lofty statement of shared values.

      European leaders shook hands with their Arab counterparts and discussed issues such as Syria, Yemen and nuclear proliferation. They agreed to tackle the “common challenge” of migration.

      Tonight, we’ve new evidence of how Libyan authorities are tackling that challenge.

      Footage from inside camps in Libya shows migrants living in shocking conditions. And there are disturbing signs that some migrants are being tortured by people traffickers. This report contains images that some viewers will find distressing.


      https://www.channel4.com/news/torture-and-shocking-conditions-the-human-cost-of-keeping-migrants-out-of-

    • Des migrants détenus en Libye, torturés pour s’être rebellés

      L’affaire est révélée par la télévision al-Jazeera. Le sort des migrants et des réfugiés bloqués en Libye ne cesse de se dégrader. Le 26 février 2019, plus d’une centaine se sont révoltés dans le centre de Triq al-Sikka à Tripoli, pour dénoncer leurs conditions de détention. La répression a été terrible. Une trentaine de ces détenus auraient été torturés.


      https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/naufrage-a-lampedusa/des-migrants-detenus-en-libye-tortures-pour-setre-rebelles_3217669.html

    • L’incapacité européenne face à la #maltraitance des réfugiés en Libye

      #Matteo_de_Bellis, chercheur d’Amnesty International sur les migrations, revient sur les tortures et les violences contre les réfugiés et les migrants en Libye et l’incapacité honteuse de l’Europe à y mettre fin.

      Farah, un jeune homme somalien, sa femme et leur fille qui venait de naître avaient passé 12 heures en mer quand les gardes-côtes libyens ont intercepté leur canot. Le couple avait fui la Libye après plusieurs mois de torture dans un hangar dans lequel Farah était battu et sa femme était violée par des bandes criminelles libyennes essayant d’obtenir une rançon de leurs proches.

      Lorsqu’il a réalisé qu’il allait être renvoyé en Libye, le jeune homme de 24 ans a été pris de nausées. « Je savais qu’il valait mieux mourir que retourner en Libye, mais ils nous ont menacés avec des armes. »

      Farah, sa femme et son bébé ont passé les sept mois suivants dans deux centres de détention de Tripoli. « Il n’y avait pas de nourriture ou de soins pour mon bébé. Elle est morte à huit mois. Elle s’appelait Sagal. »

      Leur histoire n’est que l’une des nombreuses histoires déchirantes de violence et de cruauté inimaginable que j’ai pu entendre le mois dernier à Médenine, une petite ville du sud de la Tunisie, qui a accueilli un nombre limité mais constant de réfugiés et de migrants franchissant la frontière pour échapper à l’enfer de la Libye.

      Ce weekend, de nouveaux témoignages faisant état de torture dans le centre de détention de Triq al Sikka ont été recueillis. D’après ces informations, plus de 20 réfugiés et migrants, dont des enfants, ont été conduits dans une cellule en sous-sol et torturés individuellement, à tour de rôle, à titre de punition pour avoir protesté contre leur détention arbitraire dans des conditions déplorables et l’absence de solution. En réponse à cette contestation, plus d’une centaine d’autres personnes détenues ont été transférées vers d’autres centres de détention, notamment celui d’#Ain_Zara, dans lequel Sagal est morte.

      Ces témoignages de violences correspondent à ce que j’ai pu entendre en Tunisie. Un autre homme somalien, Abdi, a décrit l’extorsion et les violences qu’il a subies aux mains des gardiens des centres de détention. Comme Farah, Abdi a été arrêté en mer par les gardes-côtes libyens et renvoyé en Libye où il est passé d’un centre de détention à un autre.

      Parfois, les gardes boivent et fument, puis frappent des gens. Ils demandent aussi aux gens de leur donner de l’argent en échange de leur libération, et ceux qui ne paient pas sont frappés. On voyait les gardes, tant des membres des milices que de la police, venir et frapper des gens qui n’avaient pas payé.

      La plupart des personnes actuellement détenues dans les centres de détention de Libye ont été interceptées en mer par les gardes-côtes libyens, qui ont bénéficié de tout un éventail de mesures de soutien de la part des gouvernements européens en échange de leur coopération en vue d’empêcher les réfugiés et les migrants d’atteindre les côtes européennes.

      L’argent des contribuables européens a été utilisé pour fournir des bateaux, créer une zone de recherche et sauvetage libyenne et construire des centres de coordination, entre autres mesures, en vue de renforcer les capacités de la Libye à empêcher ces personnes de fuir le pays et à les maintenir en détention illégale. Et ces aides ont été accordées sans la moindre condition associée, même si une telle coopération entraîne de graves violations des droits humains, comme des actes de torture.

      Si les États membres de l’Union européenne veulent cesser d’être complices des violences, des viols et de l’exploitation que subissent des femmes, des hommes et des enfants, ils doivent exiger la fermeture de tous les centres de détention pour migrants en Libye et la libération des quelque 5 000 personnes qui y sont actuellement détenues.

      Les gouvernements européens qui, depuis des années, prennent des mesures frénétiques, faisant adopter des politiques destinées à empêcher les arrivées en Europe quel qu’en soit le coût humain, doivent revenir à la raison, surtout maintenant que le nombre de traversées est très faible. Au-delà de mesures en vue de remédier à la crise des droits humains en Libye qui touche tant des Libyens que des ressortissants d’autres pays, la réponse doit prévoir un mécanisme rapide et fiable de débarquement en Europe des personnes en quête d’asile et des migrants secourus en Méditerranée, ainsi qu’un système équitable de partage des responsabilités en matière d’assistance entre les États membres de l’Union européenne.

      Ces mesures permettraient de contribuer à éviter les événements désastreux qui se sont enchaînés l’année dernière : des bateaux de sauvetage bloqués en mer pendant des semaines face au refus des pays de l’Union européenne d’ouvrir leurs ports et de les accueillir. Non seulement ces événements aggravent les souffrances des personnes qui viennent de fuir des traitements épouvantables, mais ils découragent également les navires marchands de porter secours à des personnes en détresse et de veiller à ce que ces personnes puissent débarquer dans un lieu sûr, où elles ne pourront pas être renvoyées en Libye.

      Emmanuel, un réfugié de 28 ans qui a fui le conflit au Cameroun, a décrit sa dérive en mer à bord d’un canot non loin d’une autre embarcation qui prenait l’eau, et sa stupéfaction lorsqu’un bateau a refusé de leur porter secours.

      Depuis le gros bateau, ils ont passé des appels, mais nous ont dit : “Désolé, nous ne pouvons pas vous accueillir, ce n’est pas de ma faute, nous avons ordre de laisser les Libyens venir vous chercher.” Pendant ce temps, je voyais les gens mourir sur l’autre bateau. Des bouts de bateau et des corps flottaient. [Quand] un petit bateau libyen est venu nous chercher... toutes les personnes à bord de l’autre canot étaient mortes. »

      Alors que des informations selon lesquelles des réfugiés de pays comme l’Érythrée retournent dans leur pays en dépit des risques bien connus pesant sur leur vie émergent, l’Europe ne peut pas se permettre d’ignorer les conséquences catastrophiques de ses politiques irresponsables destinées à freiner l’immigration en Méditerranée.

      Les départs depuis la Libye sont en déclin, c’est donc le moment d’exiger des changements, notamment la fermeture des centres de détention pour migrants en Libye, la mise en place d’un système de débarquement et de relocalisation équitable en Europe et des voies sûres et légales qui n’obligent pas les personnes qui cherchent la sécurité à passer par des traversées en mer.

      Cela permettrait à de nombreux enfants et adultes de sortir de ce calvaire et de quitter les centres de détention atroces dans lesquels ils sont actuellement détenus arbitrairement en Libye. Les gouvernements européens, qui ont fermé la route de la Méditerranée centrale et donc abandonné des milliers de personnes prises au piège en Libye, ne doivent pas perdre de temps.

      Nous pourrions aider à sauver des dizaines d’autres Sagal, de pères et de mères.

      https://www.amnesty.fr/refugies-et-migrants/actualites/lincapacite-europeenne-face-a-la-maltraitance-des

    • Refugees report brutal and routine sexual violence in Libya

      Abuse often filmed and sent to victims’ relatives, Women’s Refugee Commission finds.
      Refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe from Africa are being subjected to horrific and routine sexual violence in Libyan detention centres, a survey has found.

      People arriving at the centres are “often immediately raped by guards who conduct violent anal cavity searches, which serves the dual purpose of retrieving money, as well as humiliation and subjugation”, the report by the Women’s Refugee Commission says. Many of the victims have been forcibly returned to the country by the Libyan coastguard under policies endorsed by the European Union.

      The level of psychological treatment for victims of sexual violence who reach Italy is woefully inadequate, the report adds.

      Sarah Chynoweth, the lead researcher on the report, said: “Profoundly cruel and brutal sexual violence and torture are perpetrated in official detention centers and clandestine prisons, during random stops and checkpoints, and in the context of forced labor and enslavement. The fact that refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean are intercepted and forced back into this violence is untenable.”

      The report, released at the Swedish mission in Geneva, is based on surveys and focus groups of people who have reached Italy. Much of the sexual violence it describes is too graphic to detail, but the authors make the broad point that “during the course of this research, almost all refugees, migrants, and key informants emphasised that sexual violence against male and female migrants along the entire central Mediterranean route was exceptionally high”.

      A UN officer estimated that 90% of male refugees and migrants being hosted in the Italian reception system had experienced sexual violence during their journey. A local government official said that, among refugee and migrant boys, “although there are no real numbers, we know that a huge number of the minors have experienced sexual violence on the journey [to Italy]”.

      The extent of sexual violence perpetrated against refugees appears in part to be contingent on their financial resources, their connections, and the year that they travelled – those traveling in recent years are seemingly more likely to have experienced sexual violence.

      In many cases, sexual violence and torture are filmed on Skype and used to try to extract ransom money from the victims’ relatives, the report by the Swedish-funded, US-based commission says.

      Refugees, migrants and informants told researchers that sexual violence was commonplace throughout the journey to Italy. “All along the journey they experienced sexual violence,” a health provider reported. “The whole journey is traumatic. Libya is just [the] icing on the cake.”

      It had been thought that the dominance of young males in the Libyan refugee trail would reduce the risk of sexual violence. It is estimated 72% of sea arrivals in Italy were men and 18% were children, mainly unaccompanied boys.

      In response to questions about sexual violence in Libya, refugees and migrants variously told the researchers that it “happened to everyone”, “is normal in Libya”, “happened to all people inside Libya” and “happened to many, many of my friends”.

      Only two refugees among those surveyed explicitly reported that they had not been exposed to sexual violence, due to their ability to pay large sums in exchange for relatively safe passage.

      A mental health provider in Italy working with refugees and migrants said that most of the men he spoke to had been raped in centres in Libya. A protection officer commented: “It is so widespread. Everyone knows when a man says”: ‘I’ve gone through Libya’ it is a euphemism for rape.”

      Among the forms of sexual violence described to researchers was anal and oral rape, forced rape of others including corpses, castration and forced incest.

      Much of the sexual violence described by research participants contained elements of profound psychological torture and cruelty.

      Violence against detainees is frequently perpetrated in front of others or recorded on mobile phones, compounding the humiliation and reinforcing the experience of subjugation, the researchers found. “Perpetrators send (or threaten to send) the video footage to detainees’ family members for extortion purposes,” the report says.

      A commonly reported torture technique involved forcing men to stand in a circle to watch the rape and sometimes murder of women; men who moved or spoke out were beaten or killed.

      Health and mental health providers who had treated male survivors frequently reported electroshock burns to the genitals. Other genital violence included beating, burning, tying and “pulling of the penis and scrotum”.


      In February 2017, Italy made a deal, backed by the EU, to spend tens of millions of euros funding the Libyan coastguard, which intercepts boats heading for Italy and returns those onboard to Libya.

      From January 2017 to September 2018, the Libyan coastguard intercepted and forcibly returned more than 29,000 people. Many ended up in detention centres or disappeared altogether.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/25/refugees-face-routine-sexual-violence-in-libyan-detention-centres-repor
      #viols

      Et ce chiffre...

      A UN officer estimated that 90% of male refugees and migrants being hosted in the Italian reception system had experienced sexual violence during their journey.

      v. aussi :

      Il 90% dei migranti visitati nelle cliniche del Medu ha parlato di violenza estrema e torture

      https://seenthis.net/messages/598508#message599359