Video: Black migrants, Libyans fear for their lives

Image by شبكة برق | B.R.Q via Flickr

By Paul Canning

Last month I got some disturbing news. A group of gay Ugandans were trapped in Libya.

One described being gay and black African as "a double crime here". As a number of news outlets have reported, African migrant workers have suffered abuse by the forces fighting Muammar Gaddafi.

The gay Africans eventually got back home safely but for thousands more the triumph of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and its revolutionary fighters remains a cause for grave concern.

The International Detention Coalition has reported on the harassment, mass arrest and detention of African migrants across Libya. Between one and two million African migrant workers were living in Libya.

Human Rights Watch has reported that thousands of black Libyans and African migrants have been held on suspicion of having fought as mercenaries for Gaddafi.

Refugees International's Matt Pennington has just returned from Libya. He says that the NTC and its allies have failed to protect the most vulnerable in Libya, including sub-Saharan migrants and minority Libyans.

“With Gaddafi gone the eyes of the world are on Libya’s new leadership,” he says. “And having finally achieved its revolution, the NTC must now deliver on its promises of freedom and dignity for all.”

Pennington says that many of the NTC’s supporters still see black Libyans and migrants as allies of Gaddafi – their perceptions skewed by reports of Tawerghan fighters’ involvement in the siege on Misrata, and sub-Saharan mercenaries brought in to quell the initial uprising.

Black Libyans forced to flee Gaddafi-allied towns have been abused, harassed, and detained by rebel forces and the NTC has done virtually nothing to stop these abuses.

Read more »

Tunisian Islamists offer reassurance to gays, women

Photo credit European Parliament

By Paul Canning

The newly elected Islamist-led government in Tunisia has offered reassurances to both women and gays that they will respect 'individual freedoms'.

In an interview with Spanish news agency EFE, Ennahda ("Renaissance") party spokesman Riad Chaibi said that they will not pursue the use of alcohol or punish atheism and homosexuality.

Chaibi, who spent five years in prison for his opposition to dictator Ben Ali, said that in Tunisia "individual freedoms and human rights are enshrined principles" and that atheists and homosexuals are a reality in Tunisia and "have a right to exist." According to Chaibi, in the case of homosexuals there is also "a matter of dignity, because society sees them as undervalued."

In the Tunisian Penal Code homosexual sex is punishable with imprisonment for up to three years. The US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report says that:

There was anecdotal evidence that gays faced discrimination, including allegations that police officers sometimes brutalized openly gay persons and accused them of being the source of AIDS. There were no reports of persons arrested for homosexual activity.

Chaibi also denied that his party intends to make the wearing of the veil for women compulsory. "The veil is part of belief, a religious symbol, and as such has no value if it is taken from freedom," he said.

He said that the Tunisian political, social model is closer to Muslim-majority states like Turkey or Malaysia than to Iran or Saudi Arabia. Tunisia has always been considered the most 'liberal' on social issues in North Africa.

"We want a lot [of what they have] in Turkey and to take advantage of their experience," says Chaibi of another country ruled by a democratically elected Islamist government. He defines the Turkish model as "Islamo-modernist." Chaibi admitted that the Arab world is "inward looking" but said that "you cannot force the Arab world, or anyone, to be modern."

"We will not force anyone to drink or not drink: our principle is to convince the people of the negative aspects of alcohol, or drugs, but we have no intention to force," he said, recalling how American Prohibition resulted in an increase in the consumption of alcohol.

Secularists, women's groups and other detractors have accused Ennahda of being moderate in public and radical in the mosques.

The party will be the largest part of a coalition government.

"Ennahda will be mindful not to offend its coalition partners, and also the youth who voted for it, who aspire to a certain way of life," Issaka Souare, a north African specialist at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, told AFP.

"It will need the buy-in of other members of the assembly in all decisions."

"[Ennahda] cannot afford to damage Tunisia's relations with Western countries," Souare said, pointing to tourism which represents almost a tenth of GDP.

Tunisia's neighbour, Libya, adopted Islamic Sharia law on Sunday as the basis of all the new regime's laws.

Related articles

• Profile: Tunisia's Ennahda Party (bbc.co.uk)
• Celebrating Tunisia's Islamists (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)

Little impact of 'Arab spring' in asylum claim numbers: UNHCR

Image via Wikipedia

Source: UNHCR

Industrialized countries saw a 17 per cent increase in asylum applications in the first half of this year, with most claimants coming from countries with long-standing displacement situations.

UNHCR's "Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, First Half 2011" report, released today, also shows that 198,300 asylum applications were lodged in the period between January 1 and June 30, compared to 169,300 in the same period in 2010.

As application rates normally peak during the second half of the year, UNHCR projects that 2011 may see 420,000 applications by year's end – the highest total in eight years.

So far this year there have been major forced displacement crises in West, North and East Africa. The report finds related increases in asylum claims among Tunisians, Ivorians and Libyans (4,600, 3,300 and 2,000 claims respectively), but overall the impact of these events on application rates in industrialized countries has been limited.

Taking the 44 countries surveyed in the report as a whole, the main countries of origin of asylum-seekers remained largely unchanged from previous surveys: Afghanistan (15,300 claims), China (11,700 claims), Serbia [and Kosovo: Security Council Resolution 1244] (10,300 claims), Iraq (10,100 claims) and Iran (7,600 claims).

"2011 has been a year of displacement crises unlike any other I have seen in my time as High Commissioner," said UNHCR chief António Guterres. "Their impact on asylum claims in industrialized countries seems to have been lower so far than might have been expected, as most of those who fled went to neighbouring countries. Nonetheless we are grateful that the industrialized states have continued to respect the right of people to have their claims to asylum heard."

By continent, Europe registered the highest number of claims with 73 per cent of all asylum applications in industrialized countries. Only Australasia saw a significant decline in applicants: 5,100 claims compared with 6,300 a year earlier.

By country, the United States had more claims (36,400) than any other industrialized nation, followed by France with (26,100), Germany (20,100), Sweden (12,600) and the United Kingdom (12,200). The Nordic region was the only part of Europe to see a fall in asylum applications. Meanwhile, in north-east Asia applications more than doubled – 1,300 claims were lodged in Japan and South Korea compared to 600 in the first half of 2010.

The "Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, First Half 2011" report complements UNHCR's annual Global Trends Report, issued in June each year, and which this year found that 80 per cent of refugees are being hosted in developing countries.

Related articles

• Want to lodge a UK asylum claim? Good luck with that (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Visualising asylum disparities in the European Union (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In Libya, mistreatment of black migrants includes gays

By Paul Canning

As the BBC finally covers in depths, after weeks of reports, the abuse of African migrant workers by the forces fighting the Libyan dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi, we can report that those impacted have included gay African workers.

A group of gay Africans has now left the country after several fearful weeks in Tripoli but are not yet safe. We cannot reveal either their route or destination.

One wrote:

"I have been work in Tripoli, Libya for the last five years, I belong to a group of young gay African men. Life has not be smooth but we keep to ourselves." 

"There has been widescale abuse and heavy beatings for gays in the middle of the war crisis." 

"Gays are hated here in Libya and that is not likely to stop because of the new government. Here is the example: Just recently, my Ugandan gay friend was badly beaten and left for death here in Tripoli." 

"H's case is not unique, being gay in Africa is treated like a crime, and here in Libya is no different and that will not change with the new government. H's case will not make the news because we are afraid to report it for fear of not only because we are gay but we are also black Africans, a double crime here. H would have died if a few of our friends did not come to his rescue and if the liberators found out that his friends were gay it would have been terrible."

The International Detention Coalition says that reports of the harassment, mass arrest and detention of African migrants across Libya follow their previously expressed and ongoing concerns for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers detained during times of conflict.

Human Rights Watch reports that black Libyans and African migrants are being held on suspicion of having fought as mercenaries for Gaddafi, by the de facto authorities, the National Transitional Council (NTC), solely on account of their skin colour. The migrants are being held in ad hoc places of detention across Tripoli, and it remains unclear how or if the NTC plans to review each case to determine whether there is evidence of criminal activity or not.

The BBC report says:

"When rebel fighters moved into Tripoli last month, an immediate hunt began for former regime loyalists and African mercenaries accused of working for Col Gaddafi. Evidence has emerged in a series of interviews that suggests that some engaged in a violent campaign of abuse and intimidation against the black immigrant community in Tripoli."

The mass arrests have created a climate of fear, with many migrants too scared to leave their houses, and others sheltering in hideouts. Whilst there is evidence that Gaddafi did engage mercenary fighters from sub-Saharan Africa, it is also known that prior to the uprising, between one and two million African migrant workers were living in Libya.

Related articles

• VIDEO: Migrants 'mistreated' by Libyan rebels (bbc.co.uk)
• UNHCR – Sub-Saharan Africans Targeted in Libya; 2 IOM Ships Evacuate Migrants from Tripoli (migrantsatsea.wordpress.com)
• Foreigners complain of harassment by Libyan rebels (ap.org)
• Libyan Rebels Round Up, Detain Black Africans (news.firedoglake.com)
• Migrants keep their heads down in Libya (irinnews.org)

Four ways the EU can stop migrants drowning as they flee North Africa

Bodies washed up after a migrant boat sank off Lampedusa

Source: EU observer
 
By Judith Sunderland

A man named Mohammed posted this plea on the Migrants at Sea website three days after a rickety boat capsized on 6 April in rough seas just 39 miles from Lampedusa:

"i wont to know if my brother is there with the eritreans died in the sea his name is sebah tahir nuru." 

The long-expected exodus by sea from war-torn Libya has begun, and with it the tragic and avoidable loss of life.

Leading EU member states such as France and the UK are active players in the UN Security-Council-mandated Nato air operations to protect Libya's civilian population. Yet when it comes to civilians fleeing Libya by boat, EU states seem more concerned with domestic politics than saving lives.

More than 200 people, including children, are presumed dead in the 6 April tragedy. Two young women died on 13 April when the small boat that held them and over 200 others smashed into rocks off Sicily. As many as 800 more people who have left Libya by boat in the following days are unaccounted for.

A survivor of an unsuccessful crossing told me there were 72 people in his boat when it left Libya. When the boat was already in distress, what appeared to be a military helicopter hovered above and dropped some water and biscuits. The captain of the boat decided to remain in the area, believing the helicopter would send a rescue team. None came. As the boat, now out of fuel, drifted, the occupants saw what looked like an aircraft carrier and tried to convey that they were in distress, but received no help. The boat drifted for two weeks before the currents pushed it back to Libya. Only nine out of the 72 people on board survived.

Read more »

Libya and refugees: Dirty dealing with Qaddafi

Image by noborder network via Flickr  

Source: IRR

By Frances Webber


When we listen to our leaders' vigorous condemnations of the human rights abuses and lack of democracy of Qaddafi's and other authoritarian regimes in the Mediterranean we would do well to bear in mind how new-founded and limited is their concern for human rights, and how likely it is that they will try to co-opt any new governments in the region to their war against sub-Saharan migrants. For in the past decade, as well as cheerfully returning dozens of suspected Islamists to torture under cover of the flimsiest of diplomatic assurances, Britain and Europe have used Qaddafi and other repressive north African regimes as front men for policies causing thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean and beyond.

Flimsy no torture agreements

The UK has taken the lead in negotiating worthless no-torture agreements designed to secure the return to Libya, Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia of people representing no threat to the UK, but who were opponents of their own countries' repressive regimes. Under cover of these agreements, our government has handed people over knowing what their likely fate would be; foreign office officials readily admitted their regimes were torturing states. Where was our government's concern for human rights then?

Read more »

Wikileaks, the US Embassy Cables and Migration Issues

Image via Wikipedia   

Source: Franck Duvell: Diary on Human Migration Research

When ‘Cable gate’ – Wikileak’s publication of the US embassies’ reports to the US State Department Washington - hit the headlines in November and December 2010 I was wondering whether there is anything in it for migration and migration policy researchers. So far, I am not aware whether anybody else has already gone through the documents, so I had a quick look. Unfortunately, only a fraction of all cables – 2000 out of 251,000 - are already published on Wikileaks’ website (http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html).

In short, migration and refugee issues only play a very minor role in the set of documents I have sifted through. And where these are mentioned this is mostly in the context of terrorism, general threats to regional stability and security or with respect to Muslim minority communities. The first impression from these cables is that from the US American consular perspective migration as such is not considered a major issue and is not causing great anxiety whilst Muslim migration and minorities and to some extent border security are issues of concern.

Worldwide: Some reference to migration can be found in the already notorious ‘reporting and collecting needs’ issued by the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. For instance, the request for West Africa lines out to collect information on ‘population and Refugee Issues’, including ‘population movements in the region, and governments' involvement and response, indications of actual or potential refugee movements within or into the region, locations and conditions of refugee camps and informal refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) gathering sites and transit routes’ government capability and willingness to assist refugees and IDPs, health and demographic statistics of refugees and IDPs, dynamics and impact of migration and demographic shifts’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/04/09STATE37566.html). And also in Hungary information is requested on ‘demography, including ...migration’ and ‘plans and efforts to respond to declining birth rates, including through promotion of immigration’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/06/09STATE62393.html). Similar requests were sent to many other countries.

Read more »

In Libya, two men arrested for "indecent acts"

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Gay Middle East

By Dan Littauer

Tripoli’s police arrested two men for “involving in indecent acts”. The men were a twenty nine and a thirty six years old cab driver who were caught in the cab. 

The police report said that the younger man dressed like a “girl”, called himself Jumana, and was wearing make-up. It  reported that the cab driver said he was "fooled" by the man’s appearance, thinking him a woman, despite that the two men confessed that they were having “indecent acts" in the car.

The police report also mentioned that the 29 year old was engaging in prostitution.  GME is concerned about this report as it appears to be highly biased setting the 29 year old as the main culprit for the “crime”.

Comments to the article were deeply disturbing; some said that the people of Lut are back and have to be stoned; others called upon the authorities to send such perverts to psychiatrists.  Other comments went to point our places where gay men meet and encouraged the police to entrap men!

GME has informed IGLHRC and Amnesty International on this matter.

You can read the original article (in arabic) and the comments here.

Libyan lesbian seeking French asylum

Image via Wikipedia

Source: ANSAmed

Nessma Faraj, a Libyan girl who was arrested, raped and returned to her family which tried to force her into marriage after she announced on the internet that she is gay, has arrived in Metz travelling via Italy on a Schengen visa. France has authorised her to request asylum in the country. In fact she should have asked for asylum in Italy, the first country where she arrived. She only stayed in Italy for a few hours however, because France had decided to resolve the case using the sovereignty clause in the Dublin convention which regulates asylum requests since 1990.

Nessma's request is supported by 126 associations and around twenty local people. According to Lesbian Coordination France (CLF), the woman has presented document of the Libyan police to the French authorities which show that she had been arrested because of her homosexuality, a crime in Libya for which people can be convicted to three to five years in prison.

A recent report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees claims that it has become difficult for Libyans to request asylum in Italy after the signing of the Italian-Libyan agreement on the return of refugees to Libya.