UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (Xinhua) -- A UN envoy said Monday that the detention centers for migrants in Libya should be shuttered amid insecurity resulted from the fighting around the capital Tripoli.
Ghassan Salame, UN secretary-general's special representative for Libya, told the Security Council that over 5,000 refugees and migrant people are being held at detention centers run by a government agency, of which 3800 are exposed to the ongoing fighting.
"What is required is that they be shuttered," he stressed.
Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 unrest that toppled and killed long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. The chaos resulted in a divided country, with the UN-recognized administration overseeing the west and a rival government in the east.
As armed groups proliferated, the country emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing violence and poverty for a better life in Europe.
In early April, the Libyan National Army, allied with the eastern government, started an offensive on Tripoli. The fighting worsened the humanitarian situation for the migrants in the country.
In his briefing to the Security Council on Monday, Salame cited the airstrike that hit a migrant detention center in Tajoura, to the east of Tripoli, on July 2, which killed 53 and injured at least 87, and the overturn of a boat off the Libyan coast, which killed up to 150 migrants, on July 25.
Salame said the UN humanitarian agencies have worked hard to mitigate the terrible conditions in the migrant detention centers. "Towards this end, I urge the council now to call upon the authorities in Tripoli to take the long-delayed but much needed strategic decision to free those who are detained in these centers."
He said UNSMIL, the UN political mission in Libya, has devised a plan for an organized and gradual closure of all detention centers and seeks the council's support for its implementation.
According to the UN figures, in 2019, nearly 4,500 refugees and migrants were disembarked in Libya, with serious risks of detention, arbitrary arrest and being trapped by the fighting.
