The National Human Rights Committee in Libya has welcomed the efforts of the security services in the city of Tobruk aimed at eliminating gangs of smuggling migrants and human trafficking.
In a statement, the organization praised the security efforts that resulted in the release of a large number of more than 200 illegal immigrants, including children of Egyptian nationality, who were held in a human traffickers’ den on a farm in a suburb of the city.
The Committee also expressed its deep dissatisfaction with the continuation of the government agencies in the city of Tobruk with the manner of detaining irregular immigrants in the past two days, including minors from Pakistan and Egypt, in the yard of the Rescue headquarters in the city of Tobruk, at a temperature exceeding 35 degrees Celsius, where they are forced to sit and sleep in the same place, and it is not the first time that such methods have been dealt with in the detention of immigrants who are liberated from the warehouses and dens of smuggling gangs, without taking into account the requirements that must be met in temporary detention facilities.
In its statement, the committee called on the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior of the Libyan government, which was appointed by Parliament, and the local and humanitarian authorities in the city of Tobruk, to quickly find a suitable place for these immigrants, and to release their minors.
It also stressed the need to provide a safe place for them, and to enable international organizations and relevant UN agencies to have unimpeded access to detainees who need urgent protection, humanitarian support, health care and psychological support, and to provide them with assistance and protection.
The organization said that the temporary detention operations that do not comply with the requirements that must be met in temporary detention facilities, and the degrading land deportations constitute a violation of international human rights law.
The committee held the competent security authorities responsible for respecting legal procedures and guarantees of respect for human rights due during the temporary detention of migrants, deportations and returning migrants to their lands, and taking the best measures in combating immigration, smuggling networks and human trafficking.
The National Committee for Human Rights in Libya has also reaffirmed the importance of the commitment of the Libyan authorities, represented by the security services and military units, to guarantee the protection of human rights, respect for the dignity and human dignity of irregular migrants in the context of law enforcement and deportation operations, and the accommodation of migrants in facilities that comply with the specified standards and requirements that must be met in them.
Source: Libyan News Agency