Detention centers in the Libyan capital Tripoli are overcrowded following mass arrests of migrants and refugees that took place there over the weekend. This leads to extremely bad conditions, aid organization Doctors Without Borders (AzG) wrote in a statement on Wednesday. Since Friday, according to the United Nations Libya Mission at least 4,000 people have been arrested by Libyan authorities in the Gargaresh area, which is home to many migrants and asylum seekers. At least one person was killed and 15 injured in the arrests.
The arrests were aimed at fighting drug trafficking in the area, according to the temporary Prime Minister of Libya, Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, he wrote on Friday. Twitter. According to MSF, the number of people held in detention centers in Tripoli has “more than tripled” in the past five days due to the high number of arrests. They are said to be locked in “unsanitary and very densely populated cells” and have little access to clean water, food and toilets. More than 550 women and children, including pregnant women and newborns, are among the detainees, according to the aid agency.
Doctors Without Borders calls on the Dutch cabinet to receive “the most vulnerable refugees” from Libyan, Rwandan or Nigerien detention centers. Also, according to MSF, the Libyan authorities must come up with “safe and humane” alternatives to the detention centers. Last Monday, the UN Human Rights Council released another report stating that since 2016 civilians in Libya are at risk of, among other things, arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial killings.