Libya: Rights group warns of violence against Sudanese migrants

Sudanese rights groups are raising serious concerns for the welfare and treatment of refugees in Libya after reports emerge of targeted arrests, arbitrary detention, and growing hate speech against the group, according to Middle East Monitor, October 8.

The Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says the areas around Tripoli, and Western Libya more generally, have seen a worrying increase in hatred and violence against Sudanese citizens. The NGO says that the situation in the regions of Misrata, Al-Zawiya, and Sorman, in addition to Tripoli, has now grown to catastrophic levels, and they now say that the safety of hundreds of people is in jeopardy.

The group cites several verified reports recounting Libyan authorities conducting night raids on the homes of Sudanese refugees, conducting arbitrary detention of the migrants, and forcibly transferring them to overcrowded and dangerously under-resourced and lack the most basic humanitarian essentials. These actions are being carried out by the Tripoli government’s various security bodies, such as its Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration.

SOHR says that men, women, and children are being mistreated in Libyan detention facilities and face inhuman conditions in ‘open detention areas.’

Libya, a major destination for migrants and refugees across Africa seeking to take sea-bound routes into Europe, has been struggling to deal with the growing situation that continues to burden the State, with the country recently calling on Italy for help. The situation with Sudanese migrants as a specific group, therefore, may not be an isolated series of events.

The Observatory has documented several violent incidents of armed individuals breaking into Sudanese refugees’ homes, proceeding to threaten families with knives, driving them out of their homes under the threat of violence and bodily harm. Attacks like these have emerged after SOHR warned of a coordinated social media campaign consisting of hateful, disgruntled, and violent individuals seeking to encourage these events through shifting public opinion. The online campaign has caused people in Libya to take part in real violent actions, with the reports seeing Sudanese refugees’ property damaged or vandalised, as well as locals attacking foreigners.

According to SOHR, a journalist from Sudan, Musab Mohamed Ali, was also threatened, causing him and his family to flee their home.

The Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights is now calling on Libyan security bodies and the government to cease all raids and guarantee Sudanese refugees in Libya. They say that any protection that the government can afford must be put into action, including the improvement of living conditions for those currently being held in detention centres, and preventing Libyans from inciting violence against refugees online, as well as take steps toward ending hate speech against the group.

Middle East Monitor, Maghrebi.org