Close Libyan torture and slavery jails, Dutch government says

This 23 November 2017 video is called Cameroon: Migrants tell of Libya’s slave market hell.

A Mediavision Uganda video used to say about itself:

26 November 2017

A slave market in 🇱🇾Libya for African immigrants.

🌍Africans mostly from 🇳🇪Nigeria and other countries trying to get to 🇮🇹Italy through Libya are being sold to Arab countries (Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia) @ $200 to $700, together with others, Libyan nationals who are against the Tripoli government. 🇺🇸USA is purely silent simply because it’s gaining millions of dollars from oil wells. These boys and girls are forced to work and are forced to fight in wars.

Translated from Natalie Righton in Dutch daily De Volkskrant, 8 March 2018, 19:16:

Minister Kaag: Libyan detention centers for migrants must be closed, circumstances are inhuman

The Libyan detention centers for migrants must be closed immediately. The conditions are too dehumanizing. This says Minister Kaag of International Development after a visit to Libya. In more than thirty state prisons, there are still about five thousand migrants arrested by the Libyan Coast Guard when they tried to reach Europe by boat. Thousands of others are locked up in prisons of armed groups.

‘State prisons’ are prisons of the armed group recognized by most NATO governments as the ‘government’ of Libya. Other armed groups claim to be ‘governments’ as well; and sometimes get semi-recognition of that by some NATO governments.

‘The centers, which are not suitable for humans, have to close’, according to Minister Kaag Wednesday after a visit to a detention center in Tajoura, a suburb of the Libyan capital Tripoli. This makes her the first EU member of government to come to this conclusion.

Kaag thinks that the Netherlands can not remain silent about exploitation and forced labour, just because Europe does not want migrants to reach the European coast. “On whatever side you are in this debate, we are all human”, says Kaag. … ‘This includes a humane asylum policy. This is not humane. ”

In line with the EU, the Dutch cabinet is also striving to keep as many African migrants as possible in Africa to prevent them from coming to Europe. But Kaag emphasizes that Libya is not a suitable candidate to make deals with for the time being, because of the administrative chaos that prevails there. …

Hell on earth

Migrants call the Libyan detention centers, speaking to human rights activists ‘hell on earth’, where torture, sexual abuse and even murders take place. The American channel CNN opened the eyes of many European politicians at the end of last year by showing how imprisoned migrants are resold as slaves. …

Libya has no clear border control like Turkey, with which the EU has a deal about stopping migrants. …

Last year, 110 thousand of the 180 thousand boat refugees departed from Libya to Europe.

Especially Italy, but also other EU member states are determined to further reduce the numbers. They finance the Libyan Coast Guard. The Italians reportedly also pay local Libyan militiamen to stop migrants. …

Kaag’s call to close the centers not only poses a dilemma for her European colleagues, but also for her coalition partners from VVD, CDA and Christen Unie. Because what should happen to the migrants who have been caught if they can not be taken to a detention center?

Kaag’s D66 party is the most ‘liberal’ in the Dutch four party government. Especially the VVD and CDA parties are anti-refugee hardliners.

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