Busted! Libyan militias take migrants out to sea and throw them in
An Italian journalist’s photographs and video captured Libyan militias dumping migrants into the Mediterranean. The images expose the deadly costs of Europe’s partnership with Libya. Human rights groups now warn that EU funding is enabling trafficking, violence, and forced labor.
Evidence of migrants jettisoned at sea
In August, La Repubblica photojournalist Alessia Candito joined the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans on a mission. Her photographs and video show Libyan men in military uniforms forcing migrants into the water. Survivors later confirmed they had been taken from detention centers and dumped overboard. Some reported that others who resisted were executed.
InfoMigrants reports,
In a statement, Mediterranea Saving Humans said that the “video and photographic evidence … cannot be covered up: the Libyan traffickers who violently threw ten young refugees into the open sea, right in front of our rescue vessel, after keeping them in detention camps, are part of Tripoli’s official military apparatus.”
Mediterranea said its crew was threatened by Libyan forces before the dumping. The men were identified as members of the 80th Special Operations Battalion of the 111th Brigade. Libya’s deputy defense minister Abdul Salam Al-Zoubi is said to command the unit. Days later, he was welcomed in Rome with full honors by Italy’s interior minister.