Following the April 11 release of Bija, an alleged Libyan trafficker who has been accused of crimes against humanity by the UN, several migrants told InfoMigrants about their experiences at the hands of this feared boss of the Libyan coast guard in Zaouia.
One person was killed and two others were injured in a shooting at a detention center in Tripoli last Thursday, Doctors Without Borders says. The medical charity has called for the immediate release of migrants from Libya’s detention centers.
The EU operation monitoring the arms embargo against Libya, named Irini, is entering its second year. Despite being active in the Mediterranean, it has not rescued any migrants.
Hundreds of migrants trying to flee Libya by sea are intercepted by the Libyan coast guard each week. The migrants are nearly always returned to detention centres in Libya. InfoMigrants reviews this process.
The Libyan coast guard has intercepted nearly 1,000 migrants and brought them back to shore in the past 48 hours, according to the IOM. The UN agency says they face the risk of "arbitrary detention."
The foreign ministers of Italy, France, and Germany have conducted a mission to Tripoli to show support for the national unity government under new prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. They have called for change in several areas -- including respect for human rights in migration management.
Up to 60 migrants are feared dead after a shipwreck on Thursday, March 18. The organization Alarm Phone has tried to reconstruct what happened and has spoken with survivors. Its report was released on Monday.
The private rescue ship Ocean Viking is carrying 116 rescued migrants on board in the central Mediterranean following two separate rescues. The crew say they have sent requests for docking and are waiting for a place of safety in order to disembark the migrants soon, as storms approach.
A Maltese broadsheet has published photos detailing unsanitary conditions inside migrant facilities on Malta. Following mounting reports of awful conditions at migrant detention centers, Maltese authorities now want to change their tack with managing the island nation's borders, and work more closely with Libya.
Between Friday and Sunday, some 550 migrants were rescued in the Central Mediterranean. While the private rescue organization Sea-Watch said it saved some 450 people, a Libyan patrol boat picked up nearly 100 from a shipwreck, in which 20 passengers are reported missing.
In the central Mediterranean, the race against time to reach the EU is turning to a race against Libya's coast guard. With mounting reports on stand-offs between Libyan maritime authorities and NGOs in international waters, fewer migrants are succeeding in making their way to Europe. They are instead returned to Libya.
102 migrants, including two pregnant women and a seven-month-old baby, were disembarked from the Aita Mari rescue ship at the Sicilian port of Augusta on Monday. They had all been rescued on Friday in the Mediterranean Sea.