rejected Eritreans and Somalis in Italy, are in Libyan prisons for several months and could be returned to their country awaits a court-martial and the work forced.
Di Gabriele Del Grande.
Ten in February 2010. Gaeta. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni shakes hands with Libyan Ambassador in Italy Hafed Gaddur. Italy has maintained a commitment signed by the Prodi government in 2007. And today delivered to Libya for the other three patrol boats patrolling off the coast of Tripoli anti emigration after the three delivered in May 2009. The recipe of rejections, commissioned by the Prodi government and implemented by the Berlusconi government has given fruit. Landings in Sicily have been cleared in recent months. In 2009 came by sea just over 9 thousand people out of over 36mila arrived the previous year. Since the beginning of rejections, in May, the number of arrivals fell by as much as ninety percent. "We stopped the invasion," read the pompous pride of the league campaign posters. But no one has yet told the Italians that happened to the rejected.
Ten months after the first refoulement, we have rebuilt their fate, thanks to a tried and tested network of informants in Libya. Many of the rejected were repatriated to their countries. But not political refugees, Eritreans and Somalis, who are still in prison. The first two fields are located in Tripoli and Gatrun, a thousand miles to the south, in the desert. The Eritreans are instead divided among Misratah, Zlitan, Garaboulli and women, Zawiyah. While in Italy we toast to the crackdown on the landings, the refugees in Libya at risk of expulsion. Risk, because unlike the farmers of Burkina Faso or the children of the suburbs of Casablanca, an Eritrean or Somali repatriation means for arrests and persecution. And in some cases, life. Somalia is in civil war since 1991. And the Eritrean regime since 2001 in a tight grip ever tighter the opposition and the army. Repression is such, that recently the Eritrean intelligence services even arrived in Libya in search of opponents.
It happened in January 2010. The initial idea was to organize mass expulsion, as Egypt did in 2008 when eight hundred Eritreans repatriated in a month, mostly deserters. Thus, between January and February, hundreds of Eritreans detained in Libya have been filed. At the initial protests of those who refused to supply personal information to the embassy, \u200b\u200bthe Libyan police responded with violence. In the field of Surman's clashes have been particularly bloody. But in the end the Eritrean diaspora has been able to exert some pressure on international organizations and the press. And the project's return is reduced, however, taking an even more worrisome. According
Erena Radio, a radio independent Eritrean opposition based in Paris, among the hundreds of Eritreans detained in Libya, the regime would have selected twelve and they would be expelled. The facts date back to February 2, 2010. The criterion by which the twelve were to be chosen is the political role they had in their homeland before fleeing. All were in fact employed by different government departments and two of them were members Eritrean Air Force. Erena Radio has released a list of names: Nine of the twelve expelled, they would still detained arbitrarily in Eritrean prison Embatkala. They are: Zigta Tewelde, Asmelash Kidane, Zeraburuk Tsehaye, Teferi Zewde, Yohannes Tekle, Ghebrekidan Tesema, Tilinte Estifanos Halefom, Nebyat Tesfay and Tilinte Tesfagabre Mengstu. In addition, Yonas Habte, and Semere Ghebremichael that before fleeing from Eritrea were working in the office of President Afewerki, in these hours would be held in prison Ghedem near Massawa.
In Eritrea await years of rigorous imprisonment and torture. But the Eritreans remained in Libya, the situation is no better. In the detention center Garabulli are one hundred and seventy, locked together twenty-four Somalis, in large cells as a studio, one hundred feet square, where they are crammed up to forty or fifty people thrown to sleep on the floor. Eritreans arrived here Sept. 16, from prison in Benghazi, where in August a revolt of the prisoners had been put down in blood by the Libyan police, killing at least six Somali prisoners. Here, too, December 28, 2009 came the Eritrean Embassy forms for identification and repatriation. But no one wanted them to sign for fear of being persecuted in their homeland. They are almost all army deserters and Eritrea risking court martial and forced labor camps. To change his mind were the tortures of the Libyan police. On January 11 they have taken out one by one in the corridor of the jail, filling them with batons. One man was handcuffed and hung by the wrists to the wall, because it was an example to others. They finally filled the forms in one hundred and twenty, fifty more have continued to decline despite the beatings. Today they all have the same fear. Who signed afraid of being deported. Who has not done so afraid of being transferred to another prison and spend years in Libyan jails. The best years of life. Maybe with a family waiting for them here in Italy for months and that they no longer news. But do not worry about the Italians. Maroni has repeatedly said: "Libya is part of the UN and Libya is the High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations ".
From: PeaceReporter
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