CAIRO (AP) — A minimum of 22 Syrian migrants detained for greater than 5 months in Libya started a starvation strike Monday to demand their launch, a Libyan rights group stated.
The group of migrants included three minors and have been held in a jail within the western city of Zawiya in appalling circumstances, the group Belaady stated. They had been detained in October within the city of Ajaylat, which is a few 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital of Tripoli, stated activist Tarik Lamloum.
A spokesman for the federal government in Tripoli didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The migrants arrived in Libya final yr on a flight by non-public Syrian airline Cham Wings which operates routes to jap Libya, Lamloum stated. “They entered the nation legally and have all wanted paperwork and stamps on their passports,” he stated.
They then moved to western Libyan the place they had been detained as a part of a crackdown on migrants. A court docket in Ajaylat ordered their deportation after paying a positive of 600 Libyan dinars (round $125) every, in response to a doc obtained by The Related Press.
Rights group Belaady stated the Correction and Rehabilitation Establishment in Zawiya, often called Jodeddaim Jail, is overseen by the Justice Ministry in contrast to different detention facilities for migrants run by the Inside Ministry. The group, which visited the jail twice this yr, stated the detainees have suffered from scabies and different pores and skin illnesses.
Belaady referred to as for the discharge of the migrants from jail and that they not be deported to Syria, the place civil battle has raged for over a decade.
1000’s of African and Center Japanese individuals arrive yearly in Libya which has turn into a serious transit level for migrants searching for a greater life in Europe. The North African nation descended into chaos following a NATO-backed rebellion that toppled and killed long-time dictator Gadhafi in 2011.
Human traffickers have benefited from the lawlessness in Libya, smuggling in migrants throughout the nation’s prolonged borders with six nations. The migrants are then packed into ill-equipped rubber boats and different vessels and set off on dangerous sea voyages.