Libya Crisis Info
The situation in Tripoli remains extremely concerning for all civilians. Fighting between the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) that erupted on 4 April has endangered people across Tripoli, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands as indiscriminate shelling, gunfire, and airstrikes continue in densely populated areas of the city.
Since then, almost 2,700 refugees and migrants who risked their lives at sea in attempts to escape have been returned to the country in violation of international law by the EU-enabled Libyan Coast Guard. They are now in detention centres across the country – including in Tripoli where fighting continues.
Among the most vulnerable are over three thousand refugees and migrants trapped in detention centres in Tripoli and who are at imminent risk of being killed or seriously injured in the crossfire, with some centres directly hit by the airstrikes. People in these detention centres are unable to flee for their lives, and their provision of food, water and other essential services has deteriorated from already poor levels seen before the fighting.
Casualties since April4,2019
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for immediate humanitarian evacuation out of Libya for refugees and migrants exposed to the most imminent life-threatening risks, including those trapped in Tripoli detention centres. MSF is further calling for urgent solutions to end arbitrary detention, i.e. the closure of all detention centres, and safe alternatives for refugees and migrations stranded throughout the country.
Find out more about MSF activities in Libya here
So far since the onset of the conflict, only 1,296 refugees have been moved out of the country, while almost 2,700 have been intercepted at sea, forced back to Libya in violation of international law, and put into the same dangerous conditions of detention from which UNHCR is trying to evacuate people. More people are going in that are being evacuated out. People rescued at sea must not be sent back into this cycle of suffering on Libyan shores.
Lifesaving humanitarian evacuations are futile if these illegal pushbacks to Libya continue, and they can only be successful if safe countries, like (UK, France, Germany, US, Canada, Norway, etc.), offer emergency sanctuary for these exceptionally vulnerable people.