Libya slave auctions: ‘Everybody knew’

Libyan Navy boat with migrants on board arrives at navy base in Tripoli, Libya Nov. 23, 2017. (Reuters/Ismail Zitouny)
Updated 24 November 2017
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Libya slave auctions: ‘Everybody knew’

PARIS: World leaders may have been quick to voice outrage over video footage of Libyan slave auctions, but activists raised the alarm months ago — and their warnings fell on deaf ears.
Aid workers, rights groups and analysts say they had been shouting about rape, torture and forced work for thousands of black Africans in the war-torn north African country until they were blue in the face.
But it took CNN’s footage of young Africans being auctioned off near Tripoli, filmed on a hidden camera and aired on November 14, to force Western and African leaders into a flurry of condemnation.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres was “horrified“; African Union chief Alpha Conde was “outraged.”
France requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, with President Emmanuel Macron branding the auctions a crime against humanity.
But NGOs and experts have charged leaders with hypocrisy.
“Ordinary people aside, everyone knew about this — governments, international organizations, political leaders,” said Hamidou Anne, a Senegalese analyst at think-tank L’Afrique des Idees.
Alioune Tine, Amnesty International’s West Africa director, said “hostage-takings, violence, torture and rape” were well documented in Libya.
“And we’ve been talking about slavery for a long time,” he added.
Libya became a massive transit hub for sub-Saharan Africans setting sail for Europe after the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 tipped the country into chaos.
The EU has been desperate to stem the influx — more than 1.5 million migrants have arrived in Europe since 2015, according to UN figures.
But leaders are at a loss to find solutions for the asylum seekers on the other side of the Mediterranean.
This month it faced heavy criticism from the UN over its training of the Libyan coast guard, which the world body’s rights chief said resulted in migrants being sent back to “horrific” prisons.

With EU support, Italy has been training Libyan coast guards to intercept boats as part of a controversial deal that has seen migrant arrivals down nearly 70 percent since July.
But the UN charges that the policy leaves migrants returned to Libya at risk of torture, rape, forced labor and extortion.
“The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya,” UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.
Brussels has hit back that its coast guard training has helped save lives — nearly 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year — while EU aid has helped UN agencies to send 10,000 migrants home from Libya voluntarily.
In The Gambia, Karamo Keita set up a group to warn fellow youngsters not to attempt the trip to Europe, after suffering horrific abuses in Libya including slave labor.
“In Libya, black people have no right,” he told AFP back in September.
“We were taken to various farms where the Libyan guy sold us as slaves. We worked on the farms for free.”
The International Organization for Migration had in April reported the existence of markets where migrants became “commodities to be bought.”
And several months later the head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, Joanne Liu, wrote an open letter to European governments warning of the thriving “kidnapping, torture and extortion business.”
“In their efforts to stem the influx, are European governments ready to pay the price for rape, torture and slavery?” she asked, adding: “We can’t say we didn’t know about this.”

Amnesty’s Tine said that in its efforts to stop migrants arriving “at all cost,” Europe bore “a fundamental responsibility” for the horrors in Libya.
Yet others are also to blame, he told AFP.
“African countries do nothing to make their young people stay, to give them work,” he said.
Analyst Hamidou Anne also said a passive response from African leaders was in part to blame for the unfolding disaster, along with “systematic racism in the Maghreb countries.”
“This cannot go on,” he said.
“Faced with a crime against humanity you don’t condemn it, you act.”
Tiny Rwanda has offered, since the scandal broke, to take in 30,000 Africans from Libya.
Migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos meanwhile told AFP on Thursday that the EU was “working without let-up” to find solutions.
Tine said slavery needed to be on the agenda at an EU-AU summit on November 29-30 in Abidjan, an idea already floated by Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou.
“We need an impartial investigation to see how the trafficking is organized and who is behind it,” Tine said.
And, he added, “everyone must take their responsibilities.”


Explosion occurs at Turkish oil refinery during drills, but no casualties are reported

Updated 46 sec ago
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Explosion occurs at Turkish oil refinery during drills, but no casualties are reported

ANKARA: An explosion occurred at an oil refinery in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, an official said, adding the situation was “under control” and there were no reports of any casualties.
Mayor Tahir Buyukakin told private NTV television that the blast occurred at the Turkish Petroleum Refineries company, Tupras, in Izmit provicince during “routine drills.”
A fire was quickly brought under control by the privately owned company’s own emergency crews and no request for help was made, he said.
Video footage from the site showed smoke rising from the refinery.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

Lebanon media reports strike on residential building south of Beirut

Updated 9 sec ago
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Lebanon media reports strike on residential building south of Beirut

BEIRUT: Lebanese state media reported a strike on an apartment in the Jiyeh coastal area south of Beirut on Tuesday, more than a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The official National News Agency said “a raid targeted a residential apartment in a building in the town of Jiyeh,” where an AFP correspondent said a large plume of grey smoke covered the area.


Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

Updated 38 min 40 sec ago
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Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

  • Militants from the Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid in Sistan-Baluchistan province on October 26
  • Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces

TEHRAN: Iran’s military has killed eight militants in an operation in the restive southeast since a deadly attack last month on a police station, state media reported Tuesday.
Militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid on October 26 in Sistan-Baluchistan province — one of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent months.
Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces.
It has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and extremists, opposed to the authorities in Iran.
Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Shafahi said “a total of eight terrorists have been killed” since the beginning of operations in the province, according to the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.
“Fourteen other terrorists have been arrested,” including key figures involved in the attack, he said, adding security forces seized weapons and ammunition.
Shortly after the attack in Taftan county, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, a report on the Tasnim news agency said four militants had been killed and four others arrested.
Late on Monday, IRNA quoted Guards ground forces commander Mohammad Pakpour as saying the attackers “were not Iranian,” though he did not specify their nationalities.
In early October, at least six people including police officers were killed in two separate attacks in the province.
Jaish Al-Adl said on Telegram they had carried out the attacks.
Formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, the group is proscribed as a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
 
 


Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

Updated 05 November 2024
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Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

  • The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing

GENEVA: More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the war-ravaged enclave, a World Health Organization official said.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.


Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.