Libya / Partnership with Civil Society Assists Detained Migrants
TRIPOLI, Libya, June 12, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Press Briefing Notes
The IOM office in Libya has entered into a key partnership with three leading Libyan non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide much-needed humanitarian assistance to undocumented migrants who are currently detained for immigration law violations.
This partnership with the World Islamic Call Society (WICS), the International Organization for Peace, Care and Relief (IOPCR) and Al-Wafa, has allowed IOM to provide thousands of clothing items and some 30,000 units of medical supplies including rehydration solutions, antibiotics, pain killers, drugs against fever and diarrhoea as well as medical disposables such as sterile syringes, surgical gloves and tape.
A medical examination room has been set up in one of the centres and care is provided on a weekly basis by a doctor and a nurse from partner NGOs.
“Our involvement with the Libyan civil society is critical to improve the living conditions for hundreds of undocumented migrants who are currently held in overcrowded detention centres,” says Laurence Hart, IOM’s Chief of Mission. “Most of the inmates suffer from scabies and various other illnesses but also from accumulated stress. This is why we’re doing our best to provide regular counselling for those most in need.”
To date, IOM and its partners have provided non-food and medical assistance to around 500 migrants who are currently held in three reception centres around the capital Tripoli.
With some 4,000 kilometres of land and 1,700 kilometres of sea borders, Libya is both a transit and a destination country for migrants. Irregular migrants are drawn to Libya by the demand for unskilled labour and the strength of the local economy, and now numbering between 1 and 1.5 million, as well as its proximity to southern Europe.
However, since the start of joint Italian-Libyan patrols in the Mediterranean in May this year, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of irregular migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa, with centres on the island now completely empty of migrants
Unable to get to Europe from Libya or to return home, many are detained and forcibly returned or remain stranded.
In response to requests from African and Asian embassies in Tripoli, IOM has been providing voluntary return and comprehensive reintegration assistance to irregular migrants who wish to return home.
To date, the programme, which is co-funded by the EU and Italy, with additional support from the United Kingdom, has helped 3,526 often destitute migrants from 25 African and Asian countries.
Migrants who require international protection are referred by IOM to UNHCR to ensure their needs are met.
SOURCE
International Office of Migration (IOM)
