29 November 2010, 11:00 – 14:00, JAN 2Q2 Hosted by Ms Judith Sargentini MEP

I wish to speak about the suffering of refugees, the suffering of asylum seekers, the suffering of would-be immigrants…in other words, and to avoid these well-worn neutralising labels, the pain of people who make a bid for freedom by escaping from one country only to find themselves virtual or actual prisoners in another. Specifically, as I am here to represent Human Rights Concern Eritrea, the distress experienced by Eritreans in Libya, a country which is not a signatory to the European Human Rights Convention but which nevertheless does business with Italy which purports to be a signatory while flouting the rules of decent human treatment of refugees.

Though their hands were often tied, at least there was some way of documenting and tracking the misery of refugee Eritreans before the UNHCR was expelled from Libya. Now, these Eritreans have no one to monitor the long periods of detention in prisons where they are underfed, beaten, tortured  and sometimes dumped in the desert to die. No one to monitor the lack of legal status, work permits, or residence permits. No one to monitor the ill-treatment of those who are employed as cheap but hard labour and then sacked with no reason given, no roof over their heads and no recourse to any government anywhere. There is no UNHCR refugee status in Libya because there is no UNHCR.

While the EU remains silent about this situation and does nothing to redress it, it is an accomplice in all the crimes committed against Eritreans in Libya. It is also an accomplice in the complicity of Italy with the torturers and murderers  of Eritreans in Libya.

How does the EU condemn Libya’s inhuman treatment of Eritrean refugees? By opening an EU office in Tripoli to promote business interests.

When the European Commission opens a dialogue on ‘refugees and international protection’, how many of the former 300 Eritrean prisoners of Misrata prison will still be alive? How many of those who refused to sign deportation orders and were subsequently driven like dying cattle into an inhospitable desert to fight the elements with no food and water will live to tell the tale of Libya’s disregard of Eritrean humanity? While the jargon talks of facilitating the mobility of Europeans in and out of Libya, what of the ‘irregular immigrants’ such as Eritreans? More guns to shoot at them with? More police to beat them and steal their money? Are they now going to mount ‘search and rescue operations’ in the desert for the same Eritreans they sent back there in the first place? What does ‘assisted voluntary return home’ mean to a refugee who knows they will be imprisoned, tortured and even killed upon their so-called voluntary return? There is no time here to document the hypocrisy of the Migration Cooperation Agenda agreed by Libya and the European Commission.

Since it is my sincere belief that human rights abuses are illegal acts no matter where or by whom perpetrated, HRCE have sought the assistance of a British lawyer, Franklin Evans, to take legal action against the Italian government, but has encountered difficulties in tracing the Eritrean asylum seekers who were deported by Italy to Libya. The Italian government consistently sends back Eritreans to Libya knowing full well what the consequences will be for those Eritreans. It is no coincidence that many blameless Eritreans, stripped of official documents and any human rights, have been rounded up and arrested recently in the light of Libya’s new deal with Italy. So-called illegal aliens are bad for business unless you already have them performing slave labour for you.

Instead of perpetuating an already awful situation, the EU should be taking steps to reinstate the UNHCR in Libya. The few rights these almost invisible Eritreans had have been completely eroded.
Elizabeth Chyrum
Director
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea