Mediaboss Marketing

A migrant swims towards the Vos Triton commercial supply ship off the coast of Libya's coast on May 11, 2019. REUTERS

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, can confirm that over 270 migrants and refugees were handed over to the Libyan Coast Guardby the ship Vos Triton, sailing under the flag of Gibraltar.

Vos Triton had rescued the group in international waters during their attempt to reach Europe on 14 June. On 15 June, the Libyan Coast Guard returned them to the main port of Tripoli, from where they were taken into detention by the Libyan authorities.

The two organizations reiterate that no one should be returned to Libya after being rescued at sea. Under international maritime law, rescued individuals should be disembarked at a place of safety.

IOM and UNHCR staff are in Libya, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance. However, the agencies reiterate that the basic preconditions to ensure the safety and protection of rescued migrants and refugees post-disembarkation are lacking; therefore, Libya cannot be considered a safe place.

In the absence of predictable disembarkation mechanisms, maritime actors should not be obliged to return refugees and migrants to unsafe places. IOM and UNHCR call on States to coordinate so that merchant vessels rescuing people in distress are granted swift permission for disembarkation in a place of safety, to avoid lives being placed at risk.

TheLibyanCoast Guard has returned more than13,000people to Libya this year, already surpassing the number of people intercepted or rescued and disembarked in all of 2020. Hundreds of others have perished at sea.

The continuing departures from Libya highlight the need for a predictable rescue and disembarkation mechanism along the Central Mediterranean route, with immediate effect and in full compliance with international human rights principles and standards.

Migrants and refugees disembarked in Libya often end up in appalling conditions where they may be exposed to abuse and extortion. Others go missing and are unaccounted for, raising fears that some may have been channeled into human trafficking networks.

IOM and UNHCR call for an end to arbitrary detention in Libya, through the establishment of a judicial review process, and advocate for alternatives to detention starting with the immediate release of the most vulnerable.

For more information please contact:

IOM

UNHCR

Share on Facebook

Follow this link:
IOM and UNHCR condemn the return of migrants and refugees to Libya - UNHCR

Over 13,000 migrants have been returned to Libya by the Libyan coastguard this year, already surpassing 2020 levels, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said.

The intergovernmental organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have issued a joint statement condemning returns to Libya following the handover of over 270 people rescued at sea from a ship sailing under the Gibraltar flag to Libyan authorities between June 14 and June 15.

2021 is now on course to break the record for the highest number of interceptions and returns by the Libyan Coast Guard since the country descended into crisis over a decade ago, said Tom Garofalo, NGO International Rescue Committees (IRC) Country Director in Libya, in a statement.

No one should be returned to Libya after being rescued at sea. Under international maritime law, rescued individuals should be disembarked at a place of safety, the IOM and UNHCR statement read, reiterating that since basic preconditions are not met, Libya cannot be considered a safe place.

On Wednesday, EU ambassadors agreed on an extended negotiating mandate for the Council and the European Parliament to strengthen the EU asylum agency regulation, known as EASO. This comes after ministers from Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Maltaoffered their supportfor a deal that could turn EASO into a fully-fledged European agency.

If this is achieved, EASO will be able to provide swift operational support wherever it is most needed and contribute to increase mutual trust among member states, said Eduardo Cabrita, the interior minister of Portugal, which currently holds the rotating Council of the EU presidency.

More:
Number of migrants returned to Libya could reach all-time high - POLITICO Europe

For Aisha, sexual slavery was something you only heard about happening to others in television reports, until she found herself locked in a living "hell" in Libya.

"I had left a nightmare only to fall into hell," said the migrant from Guinea, lured to the North African country that criminal gangs have turned into a den of racketeering.

Aisha fled her home country after five miscarriages: for her in-laws and the neighbourhood, she was either sterile or a witch.

But the young woman was simply diabetic.

"I just wanted to disappear from my country," said Aisha, a graduate in hotel management.

She contacted a former classmate who appeared to have made a life for herself in neighbouring Libya and who lent Aisha money to join her.

"I didn't even see the country. As soon as I arrived, I was locked up, I was a slave. She brought men to me and she got the money."

Locked in a room with a toilet, she only saw the "friend" who had duped her when she was brought in food,"like a dog".

"The men came drunk. I'd rather not remember it," said Aisha, still trembling. "I thought my life was over."

Wouldn't wish that on worst enemy

After three months, a Libyan man took pity on her, threatened her captor and put Aisha on a bus to Tunisia with 300 Libyan dinars (RM269) in her pocket.

After her diabetes was treated, she even gave birth to a baby girl late last year.

She now dreams of Europe, but returning to Libya is out of the question.

"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

For the past two years, she has lived with other migrant women in Medenine, southern Tunisia.

Most of the others who'd experienced Libya had also been forced into prostitution, raped or sexually assaulted, said Mongi Slim, head of the local Red Crescent.

"Some of them, if they had the protection of a man, they fared better. But for single women, it's almost systematic," said Slim.

Some migrants said they had been advised to take a three-month contraception jab before departure, and some travel with morning-after pills, according to UN reports.

Mariam, an Ivorian orphan, left with 1, 000 euros (RM4,971) to pay for the crossing from Abidjan to Libya via Mali and Algeria.

She hoped to earn enough in Libya to reach Europe.

But she ended up spending most of her year there in prison, where she was sexually exploited, before fleeing to Tunisia in 2018.

"I worked for six months with a family, then I set off by sea from Zuwara," a port in western Libya, said Mariam, 35.

"Armed men caught us, took us to prison and abused us," she said.

Mariam said she had fallen into the hands of militiamen who run illegal migrant camps where extortion, rape and forced labour are common.

Official centres under Libyan government control, and where the European Union-funded coastguard transfers would-be exiles it intercepts, are also riddled with corruption and violence, including sexual assault, according to the United Nations.

Impunity

"Every morning, a chief would make his choices and send the chosen girls to Libyans who had rented special rooms," said Mariam.

"They fed me bread, sardines and salad. I stayed there a month until they moved me to another place," she recalled, her voice spiked with anger.

"They were armed, they smoked drugs, they paid the chief but not me."

According to rights groups, men and boys are also sexually abused.

"Sexual violence continues to be perpetrated with impunity by traffickers and smugglers along migration routes, in detention centres, judicial police prisons, and against urban migrants by militants and armed groups", the United Nations said in a 2019 report.

Such criminality increased with the intensification of the Libyan conflict from 2014.

Three migrant detention centres in Libya were closed in mid-2019 and the establishment in March of a new UN-sponsored transitional government has raised hope of a decline in impunity and violence.

The UN decided last year to deploy protection officers to combat sexual crimes.

But they have yet to even be recruited, and intercepted migrants are still turned back to Libya, to the dismay of international organisations.

On June 12, a record of more than 1, 000 people caught at sea were sent back to Libyan jails, according to the UNHCR. - AFP

Link:
Women migrants reduced to sex slaves in Libya 'hell' - The Star Online

Something unusual happened on Friday. FIFA announced the new rankings only for 12 teams in Asia so the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) can, on July 1, go ahead with the draw for the third round of qualification for the 2022 World Cup.

This will separate the surviving dozen into two groups of six who will battle it out from September to March, with the top two from each automatically going to Qatar. Sounds easy but while the who and the when are already decided, the issue that is going to dominate in the cramped corridors of AFC house in Kuala Lumpur over the next few weeks with countries still battling COVID-19 is where.

After leading Australia to top spot in Group B, coach Graham Arnold admitted that he was in the dark as to whether the Socceroos will be able to play Down Under any time soon. Youre asking me whats going to happen next with the Socceroos? I dont know, Arnold said last week. I dont know if well play in Australia at all this year and where well play overseas, Ive got no idea.

Ideas are starting to be thrown around, however. Officially, at the moment, the games will be played in the traditional home-and-away format but, as things stand in terms of the travel restrictions that are in place in a number of countries, there are questions as to whether this will be possible.

That will be the first priority. It is possible that given the importance most nations place on the World Cup, that hitherto-reluctant authorities will be willing to host home legs in the coming weeks and months. If enough are ready to do so (Iraq and Syria dont play at home anyway), then even if there are a couple of serious dissenters,they will be given a choice: To follow the format or play their home legs at least in the early stages away.

This may not be possible, however, and could mean a huge headache.

The second half of the second round was played at centralized venues, but while there was plenty of debate, there wasnt a huge amount of rancor.Iran were angry at being sent to Bahrain, partly as it meant they played seven out of eight games away from home but this was partly due to the fact the team were struggling at the time. Smaller teams were not in the running for top spot so didnt mind so much being hosted in, for example, Saudi Arabia or Japan. That wont be the case in the third round with the big boys battling for a World Cup place.

As one AFC official said, The second round was relatively easy to sort out. Most of the big nations hosted the games and there werent many complaints aside from Iran. Australia also had to go away but as their governments travel restrictions were so tight, they understood. Also, playing Nepal twice on foreign soil was not seen as a major problem but playing Japan twice in Japan would be very different.

If there are centralized venues, the simple question is one that is very difficult to answer. Who hosts them? With the World Cup at stake, most of the 12 will be very keen to have home advantage.

You can imagine the rows if Japan have to play all their games in South Korea or vice-versa, said the official. There could be rotating hosts with one country hosting two or three games at a time, but this also leaves the games at the mercy of travel restrictions.

While the AFC will wait until the draw is made to really start investigating the issue, there are possible solutions. At the moment, the expectation is that it will be easier to sell neutral venues to the contenders. This happened as recently as the1990 and 1994 World Cups with the final games being played in Singapore and Qatar respectively.

The obvious option now is Qatar. The country successfully hosted AFC Champions League games last year and with the World Cup just over a year away, it has the stadiums and the know-how and, crucially, is not involved in qualification. Officials believe there will be plenty of pushback but that would fade as countries realize there are not many better options and the important thing is just to finish qualification.

After being on the backfoot and reacting to events throughout the second round, the AFC now wants to be as proactive as possible and the feeling is that Qatar offers as much certainty as is possible at the moment.

The question then changes into when. If the games take place along the already-set FIFA windows, it means a lot of traveling for some countries and almost none for others, and there may be a push for a second neutral venue over in the east.

All 10 games (per team) taking place over an intensive month would be ideal, but back in the 1990s there were few Asian players in Europe meaning that it was a case of just organizing domestic leagues. Now, many of the biggest stars dont play in Asia and would not be released by clubs for a month of busy football.

Some feel that the best way forward is reducing the number of games with the thinking being that, if there is a neutral venue then you dont need home-and-away legs. Playing five games instead of 10 means that enough space can be found in the calendar.

There is no easy option, however, and that means a lot of difficult conversations following the draw on July 1.

Originally posted here:
Sudan overcome Libya to reach 2021 FIFA Arab Cup as the first of the qualifiers - Arab News

Members of the United Nations Security Council - Reuters

CAIRO 6 June 2021: Deputy Libyan Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mousa al-Sharaa said in the 32nd United Nations Convention Against Corruption that over the past decade of chaos in his country, Libyan wealth has been smuggled while certain foreign countries interfered in its internal affairs to put their hand on Libyan resources.

Sharaa added that is why recovering smuggled Libyan money is on top of priorities of the Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU). The Libyan diplomat also pointed out that no matter how big national efforts are, they must be supported by the international community.

In April, the United Nations Security Council gave the green light to deploy 60 observers to the ceasefire in Libya, urging the country's new national unity government to prepare for free and fair elections on December 24.

The Security Council approved a proposal of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antnio Guterres, to deploy observers for a ceasefire in Libya.

Guterres addressed to the Security Council on April 7, "The observers will deploy to Sirte once all the requirements for the permanent presence of the United Nations are met, including security, logistical, medical and operational aspects.""In the meantime, there will be a presence in Tripoli as soon as circumstances permit," he added.

In the resolution adopted by the Security Council, the Council stressed the "complete and real participation of women and youth" in the elections.

The UN Security Council strongly urged all states to respect and support the ceasefire by withdrawing all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya "without delay" and to demand full compliance with the arms embargo imposed on Libya.

Originally posted here:
Libyan smuggled wealth on top of government priorities: permanent mission to UN - Egypttoday