Libya forcibly evicts stranded refugees from cargo ship

Libyan coast guards have raided a cargo ship and forcibly evicted dozens of desperate refugees from the vessel, which had rescued them off the Libyan coast ten days ago.

Coast guards used robber bullets and tear gas on Tuesday to remove 90 refugees from a Panama-flagged “Nivin” vehicles carrier that had rescued them as their boat began sinking and docked in the port of Misrata.

The refugees, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, who sought to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, were refusing to leave the ship.

“A joint force raided the cargo ship and used rubber bullets and tear gas to force [them off the ship],” Reuters quoted the commander of the central region coastguards, Tawfiq Esskair, as saying on Tuesday.

The commander said some of them had been wounded during the eviction but were now “in good condition” after treatment in hospital.

They have now been taken to a detention center in the city, according to Esskair.

Rights groups had already warned against taking the refugees to detention centers, where they are reportedly held in dire conditions.

Stranded on the cargo ship, refugees were pleading to be taken to Europe.

Libya’s western coast is the main departure point for asylum seekers attempting to reach Europe. Many refugees have crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy over the past four years as human traffickers took advantage of a security vacuum in Libya after the toppling of its long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

While some of the refugees complained that they were tortured by human traffickers in the North African country, others said they had been through serious abuses in official detention centers.

“How come you want me to leave the ship and stay in Libya?” said a 17 year-old Sudanese asylum seeker earlier this week, according to Reuters. “We agree to go to any place but not Libya.”

SS