Rabat – The Libyan Crimes Watch has reported the killing of three Moroccan immigrants in a detention center in Al Maya, Tripoli, on their website.
Established in mid-2019, the UK-based Libyan Crimes Watch was founded by independent human rights activists to monitor and document human rights violations in Libya, according to their website.
The Libyan Crimes Watch stated on January 14 that Moroccans Hamza Ghdada (21), Abdelaziz El Harchi (30), and Mohamed Atta (32) were killed in a detention center in Al Mayah, in western Tripoli. The organization claims that the center is under the command of the Stability Support Apparatus, a “security force” that is led by Abdul Ghani al-Kikli.
While the date of Hamza Ghdada’s death is unknown, the organization stated that Abdelaziz El Harchi died under torture in early January and that Mohamed Atta died on December 3, 2021 after he was denied medical care when his health condition deteriorated.
The bodies were transferred to the mortuary at Al-Zahraa General Hospital, and the family of one of the victims confirmed that they had obtained pictures of the victim while he was in the mortuary with signs of torture, the NGO reported.
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In its statement, the Libyan Crimes Watch accused “the Libyan Presidential Council [for being] fully legally responsible for this crime and other repeated and horrific violations against migrants, committed by the Stability Support Apparatus that is affiliated with them, without taking any measures to hold those responsible to account.”
They added, “We also call on the Libyan Public Prosecutor to open an immediate and transparent investigation into this incident, bring those responsible to justice, and take urgent measures to protect migrants in detention centers.”
International, regional, and local NGOs and international organizations have long warned of the bleak human rights situation in Libyan detention centers.
On November 20, 2017, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released a report entitled: “Migrant situation in Al Maya: Flash Update #1.”
In the report, OCHA stated that “unconfirmed reports suggest that up to 1,500 migrants and refugees have been living in difficult circumstances in informal sites near the Al Maya coastal area, west of Tripoli, for up to three months.”
Four years later, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) confirmed in October 2021 that “more than 5,000 migrants have been sent to Libya’s infamous detention centers [in one week period].”
Faced with an international backlash over the inhumane conditions in detention centers across Libya, the Libyan authorities argued the arrests of migrants were part of “a security campaign against undocumented migration and drug trafficking,” IRC added.
With the rise of public awareness of human rights violations in Libya, Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs took several urgent measures in 2017 to repatriate Moroccan migrants detained in Libya. The latest related operation took place in December 2021, leading to the repatriation of 235 Moroccan migrants.
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