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The shipwrecked migrants we spoke to explained that if they try such a dangerous crossing, it is partly due to their terrible living conditions in Libya, where they risk all kinds of abuse. Libya cannot be considered a safe haven. Migrants caught at sea and returned there are immediately placed in detention centers, where the UN has documented its catastrophic living conditions: extreme poverty, risk of kidnapping, human trafficking … Under international law, migrants rescued at sea must be taken to a safe harbor, but this is certainly not the case in Libya. That is why the IOM relentlessly calls on the international community and the EU to put in place a sustainable, secure and predictable disengagement mechanism that protects the rights of migrants in the central Mediterranean.
Sara Msehli, IOM Spokeswoman in Geneva
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