Race against Time to Save Lives of Thousands of Migrants Stranded in Southern Libya
GENEVA, Switzerland, June 28, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Press Briefing Notes
Thousands of stranded migrants, including large numbers of women and children, are in desperate need of immediate food, water, shelter and medical assistance after having spent many weeks living in the open in the southern Libyan desert, an IOM assessment team has found as the Organization looks into ways to evacuate them to safety.
So far, more than 2,000 Chadian migrants have been discovered by IOM in Gatroun and Sebha, though these figures could grow as the team continues with its assessment in the area.
“Time is of the essence,” says IOM’s Dr. Qasim Sufi, leading the assessment mission to Southern Libya which began late last week. “The migrants are in a very bad state after having existed so long like this. Conditions for them are brutal in the desert heat with no protection from the sun, wind or sand and no access to water, food or sanitation.”
Up until now, the migrants’ survival has been largely due to whatever supplies other Chadian migrants passing through have been able to spare.
IOM staff are today distributing water, food and hygiene materials purchased from the local market to the stranded migrants in Sebha. Another distribution for migrants in Gatroun will take place Wednesday, 29 June.
Together with the Libyan Red Crescent, IOM staff, including a doctor, will also begin to carry out medical checks on the migrants from today and provide medicines.
Many of the migrants have been stranded for more than six weeks, en route to Chad from towns and cities such as Kufra, Misrata, Al Jufra and elsewhere.
The assessment team have been struck by the numbers of women and children as well as the elderly among the group, estimated to represent between 30 to 40 per cent. Most of the Sub-Saharan African migrants who have fled Libya into neighbouring countries have been young men.
The large presence of the women, children and elderly also highlights the fact that the migrants have been living and working in Chad for many years, for some up to 30 years. Leaving Libya is a matter of last resort and the uncertainty of what awaits them in Chad after decades away is causing fear and worry among them.
“Their situation is heartbreaking on many fronts. During their escape, people have either been separated from loved ones or have lost them. Women without husbands, children or family – not knowing what has happened to them and not having anyone to turn to,” says Sufi. “One distraught woman came to us in tears, having left her husband in Misrata. They had been separated by the fighting there and she didn’t know whether he was alive or dead.”
The migrants have been unable to leave Gatroun or Sebha because of clashes between government and rebel forces south of Gatroun, banditry and lack of available transport.
The IOM team itself had to negotiate safe passage through to Gatroun after running into clashes between rival forces some 80 kms south of the town. It had also come across many trucks with migrants on board that had broken down in the desert and which had been stranded for many days. This had exposed them to bandits who had consequently robbed them of their possessions and supplies.
“With so many women, children and elderly, going any further south is not possible given the security conditions and unsafe roads. The migrants have had no option but to stay where they are, even though they have run out of food and water,” explains Sufi.
With Sebha, Libya’s fifth city, home to a major airport, IOM will begin evacuating migrants by air as soon as logistically possible to Niger and Chad.
This will be done with the support of the Libyan authorities including the Ministry of Transport, clan elders and both the Chadian and Nigerien consulates in Sebha, which are also helping IOM to identify where other groups of migrants are and who may need humanitarian and evacuation assistance.
“It’s a miracle there haven’t been deaths among the migrants. Although people have respiratory illnesses, diabetes or high blood pressure and babies are being born in the open without medical care and in completely unsafe conditions, they have largely survived. But we cannot tempt fate any longer and need to get them home fast,” states Sufi.
IOM is also putting in place measures to provide assistance to thousands of migrants currently en route to Chad and Niger.
En route to Gatroun, the IOM assessment team met more than 35 trucks each carrying over a hundred migrants inside Libya making their way to Chad or Niger. IOM is looking at establishing a way station at Madama in Niger, a crossroads for all those coming from Libya that would provide food, water and some shelter.
The IOM assessment and imminent evacuation operation from Gatroun and Sebha, mainly funded by the US and German governments and the European Commission’s Humanitarian and Civil Aid department (ECHO), follows long-standing reports of many tens of thousands of Chadian migrants being stranded in Gatroun.
Although 44,000 mainly Chadian migrants have managed to reach Chad by road in recent weeks, reports of the extremely worrying plight of vulnerable migrants in southern Libyan have lingered.
IOM has been negotiating access to the group since the reports first reached the Organization.
More than 75,000 Nigeriens and other African migrants have also reached Niger from Libya since the start of the crisis.
SOURCE
International Office of Migration (IOM)
