French president Emmanuel Macron has announced today his country will set up a processing centre in Libya for asylum seekers who are trying to reach Europe.
Reacting to the news, Oxfam’s Europe migration campaign manager Claire Seaward said:
“France is unlikely to be able to guarantee safety and human rights for asylum seekers in Libya. But safety and human rights are absolutely essential for people to seek asylum in a fair and effective way.
“Murder, torture and sexual abuse – this is how people escaping Libya are describing their experience in the place they call ‘hell’. Europe must not prevent people from escaping such atrocities.
“Europe has been failing to respect fundamental rights of people in ‘hotspots’ on its own soil. People are living in overcrowded conditions and in detention. This is likely to be much worse in Libya.”
Notes to editors
- Oxfam and its partners have been hearing accounts of murder, torture and other horrific abuses being suffered by refugees and other people who have fled through Libya.
- According to the United Nations, 1.3 million people in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance. They also highlight that “migrants and refugees transiting or staying in Libya face particularly dire living conditions and are victims of physical and mental abuses, discrimination, forced and unpaid labour, financial exploitation, gender based violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, and marginalization.”
- So-called ‘hotspots’ have been set up in Greece and Italy by the EU and national authorities to register new arrivals and execute swifter returns of those rejected. In April, the European Court of Auditors has criticized appalling gaps in the EU’s ‘hotspot’ approach for receiving migrants.
Contact information
Florian Oel | Brussels | florian.oel@oxfam.org | office +32 2 234 11 15 | mobile +32 473 56 22 60
- Oxfam and its partners have been hearing accounts of murder, torture and other horrific abuses being suffered by refugees and other people who have fled through Libya.
- According to the United Nations, 1.3 million people in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance. They also highlight that “migrants and refugees transiting or staying in Libya face particularly dire living conditions and are victims of physical and mental abuses, discrimination, forced and unpaid labour, financial exploitation, gender based violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, and marginalization.”
- So-called ‘hotspots’ have been set up in Greece and Italy by the EU and national authorities to register new arrivals and execute swifter returns of those rejected. In April, the European Court of Auditors has criticized appalling gaps in the EU’s ‘hotspot’ approach for receiving migrants.
Florian Oel | Brussels | florian.oel@oxfam.org | office +32 2 234 11 15 | mobile +32 473 56 22 60