At the hotspot at around 16.00 pm, You can breathe a strange air of quietness. Soon, from words heard by the migrants it became an explicit background of widespread fear “The Italian minister did not want to welcome us, he did not want us to get out from the ship.” There are only 50 of the 113 landed by the cargo ship Alexander Maersk on the evening of June 25, the others have already been transferred to the first response centers. Most are Sudanese men, two Egyptians, a small minority of Eritreans and Somalis, 4 women including one pregnant and one family with three children (2; 5; 8 years).
When they left Tripoli, they say that they remained in Libyan waters for about 28 hours before being rescued, when the rubber boat full of water was about to sink.
What strikes are the numerous red eyes (from tears), a boy with one arm and several bodies visibly underweight, a young man with walking difficulties indicated by his companions “They tortured him with electric cables “. There is no excessive clinical criticality but most people left their countries for a long time 3/4 years, someone passing through Egypt before arriving to the Libyan hell, bringing the psycho-physical signs of a exhausting Migration.
The Medu Team has collected several testimonies of violence, beatings and torture in Libya.
A. barely of age, says that he has been sold so many times in Libya “for two months they have locked me in a small container with 30 migrants, those who did not pay were tortured by a Nigerian, I was beaten many times, they did not give us water, they gave us little food once a day, at 4am. In a container among migrants there were two dead bodies in a rotten state to frighten us and convince us to pay ” what was said by this young man was confirmed by other migrants we have heard.
M. 24 years, victim of repeated torture has spent the last 4 years in Libya, he says with eyes full of tears “I have been beaten and humiliated so many times in Libya, I was in prison (informal) for six months, they used to extinguish the cigarette butts on the body “. During short psychoeducational groups the main problem that emerges, is the strong concern for the brothers left in Libya, asking us why Europe cannot do anything to save them from that hell?
W. from South Sudan, tells us he tried in November 2017 to arrive to Italy but he has been, after a while, stopped by the Libyan coast Guard, that took him back “They took me to a government prison in Misurata where they used to beat us every day to have money, I had nothing, I stayed there two months and then they sold me ” he explains that in this prison people bought migrants for 50 dinar (the equivalence of approximately 16 euros) and then they used them as free workforce.
The team spoke with about 25 of the migrants present in hotspot.
This testimony was gathered at Pozzallo on 26/06/2018