Libya: refugees pay disproportionate price in violence

ROME – Paying one of the highest prices for the escalation of the conflict in Libya are once again refugees – including many Eritreans, Ethiopians, Sudanese, and Somali, said Father Mussie Zerai, head of the Habeshia Agency Cooperation for Development.

Habeshia has called for a humanitarian corridor to take the thousands of refugees from other African nations trapped in Libya to the safety of a ‘third country’.

The priest said that some 30 refugees had been killed on Sunday alone, including 8 Eritreans, 5 Ethiopians, Somali, Sudanese, and Egyptians. Libyan militias use refugees as ‘mules’ to transport loads of munitions, putting the lives at risk of people in a conflict not of their choosing and that has nothing to do with them. Refugees in Libya are entirely left to their own devices, and can be exploited ruthlessly by the armed men of clans that ”abuse them, rob them, rape them, and kidnap them to demand ransom from their families and friends”.

All Western nations have left Libya and withdrawn their diplomatic staff, Zerai said. The thousands of refugees have instead been abandoned, especially as even humanitarian organizations are leaving the country. Habeshia therefore holds that an international plan is needed to focus on refugees trapped in an extremely violent conflict, which reaps its victims among those most in need of its protection. The proposal is for a humanitarian corridor to enable refugees to leave Libya and be granted asylum in another country.

ANSA