Melissa Pawson
Bir al-Ghanam is an unofficial detention centre south-west of Tripoli, which Tilley said receives “even less scrutiny” than other sites and is known for its “horrific” conditions. “There’s no access, oversight or registration of the people who go there, so they are much more likely to disappear and to be extorted,” said the researcher.
The site has also been flagged by the US State Department’s country report on human rights practices for arbitrarily detaining migrant children.
A 2023 UN fact-finding mission reported found “overwhelming evidence” that migrants are “systematically tortured” in Libya’s detention centres, where “acts of murder, enforced disappearance, torture, enslavement, sexual violence, rape and other inhumane acts are committed in connection with their arbitrary detention”.
Salahadine Juma, a co-founder of activist group Refugees in Libya, has firsthand experience of what happens to those detainees whose families can’t afford to pay. “I was held in a [Libyan] detention centre for a year and a half. I was forced to do hard labour because I couldn’t pay the ransom,” he said.
Juma, who co-founded Refugees in Libya before arriving in France 18 months ago, said its hotline receives between 50 and 80 messages a day from trapped refugees and migrants asking for help to escape the centres. “They [Libyan officers] force them to pay a ransom, and if they can’t pay, they force them to work. Or, if they are women, they are sexually abused.”
Juma said there’s not much the group can do to help them, other than putting pressure on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ representatives in Libya. “But there are many stories of refugees and migrants being neglected by UNHCR in Libya,” he added.
Italy’s ‘deliberate obstruction’
The journey to Italy from the international waters north of the Libyan coast where we’d picked up Omar’s boat could be done in 13 hours, but it was six days before Humanity 1 finally reached the port of Ortona in central east Italy on 1 December.
During the long journey, many survivors on board asked why we had not yet reached Italy. At one point, we were so close to the shore we could see the details of buildings and wind farms – and yet we were still over 24 hours from arriving.
Since Italy’s adoption of the ‘Piantedosi decree’ in January 2023, rescue ships requesting a safe port to disembark rescued people have regularly been forced to travel to distant ports, sometimes over 600 miles away, or risk their boats being detained for non-compliance. Rescue organisations say the policy is a “deliberate obstruction” designed to limit their ability to rescue people in distress at sea.
When Omar and the other survivors eventually disembarked in Ortona, they were met by the Red Cross and Italian police. This moment marked the start of a new and challenging chapter for them – the start of their asylum processes in Italy. Those from countries that the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have declared to be ‘safe’ (which includes Egypt) could face a fast-tracked detention and a deportation order.
Stefania, the protection representative onboard Humanity 1 said the dangerous sea crossing is “not the only challenge” the rescued people will have to face.
“Under Italian law, some categories are protected, for example, if you’re a victim of torture or trafficking,” she said. “[Otherwise] they could be detained in administrative detention centres [in Italy]. I don’t want to exaggerate but they could look like something they lived through in Libya.”
Bribes in one hand, EU salary in the other
For Omar, arrival in Italy also started the countdown for him to contact the Libyan smuggler awaiting payment.
“The money is due on arrival,” Omar told me before the boat docked. “As soon as I get on shore and have reception, I have to send the smuggler a message on Facebook to tell him I arrived. Then he’ll get in contact with my father to arrange payment.”
Omar owed the smuggler 360,000 Egyptian pounds (£5,650) for the crossing, which was due in full only if he arrived in Europe alive. “The smuggler told me that if the sum isn’t paid, he will kill any of my cousins or brothers in Libya,” said the teenager. “He told me he has contacts in Egypt and could hurt one of my family members there too. He knows who my relatives are, he’s observed me. The thing that matters to him is the payment.”
Omar has good reason to believe these are not empty threats. “The smuggler was always carrying his gun [while we were waiting to cross],” he said. “One time I picked up my phone to send a voice message on WhatsApp and he pointed his gun at me. He told me if you do that again, I will shoot you and bury you here.”
Omar described how most smugglers he interacted with during his time in Libya appeared to be connected to the Libyan internal police. “They have police cars, they’re wearing police uniforms and carrying the guns,” he said. “Those police pay money to the coastguard to get the boats through.”
This claim is difficult to verify, but likely has a measure of truth, according to Juma. “The majority of smugglers in Libya have some connection with the police or coastguard,” said the activist. “They know when the coastguard boats will be at sea, so they know which days to send boats. Some are even members of the coastguard themselves.”
Tilley told openDemocracy that Libyan internal police may not be smugglers “in the traditional sense”, but they could be seen as “facilitators” who turn a blind eye to smuggling, often in exchange for a financial incentive.
The 2023 UN fact-finding mission found “reasonable grounds” to believe that high-ranking staff in the Libyan Coast Guard, Libya’s Stability Support Apparatus and the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration in Libya had “colluded with traffickers and smugglers.” The report stated that trafficking and smuggling generated “significant revenue” for individuals, groups and state institutions.
“The Libyan coastguard are border guards for Italy, not for Libya,” said Omar. “They get paid bribes by the smugglers, and they get their salaries from Europe.”
Mounir Satouri, a French MEP and chair of the EU’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, said the EU’s continuing support for the Libyan coastguard “only ensures that atrocities are committed in our name and with European taxpayers’ money.” He described the coastguard as “an uncontrollable armed militia that violates international law and tramples on human rights.”
“To tackle both militia abuses and smuggling networks, the European Union must coordinate genuine search-and-rescue operations and open safe pathways for those seeking refuge in Europe,” said Satouri.
“On 13 October, a boat carrying 140 people was attacked, leaving a man between life and death with a bullet lodged in his skull. Just last week, the rescue vessel Louise Michel was targeted. This is unacceptable. This impunity and Europe’s silence must end.”
The EU Commission (Migration and Home Affairs) was approached for comment. Italian interior ministry was approached for comment.
When I asked Omar if there was anything he would like people to know about the journey, he said his only message was for others looking to make the crossing. “Don’t travel to Europe through Libya,” he said. “Find another way.”
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Melissa Pawson is the editor for Beyond Trafficking and Slavery. She also works as a freelance journalist, covering migration, human rights and the climate crisis.
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