ON BOARD THE GEO BARENTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA: A UN migration agency official expressed concerns Friday over the disappearance of thousands of Europe-bound migrants who were intercepted and returned to Libya as more and more desperate people risk their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
According to Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, the Libyan coast guard, which receives funds from the European Union, intercepted more than 24,000 Europe-bound migrants in the Mediterranean so far this year, including over 800 this week alone.
However, only 6,000 have been accounted for in official detention centers in the North African country, she said. The fate and whereabouts of thousands of other migrants remain unknown, she added.
“We fear that many are ending up in the hands of criminal groups and traffickers, while others are being extorted for release,” Msehli said.
A spokesman for Libya’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the detention centers, did not immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for comment.
Libya has for years been a hub for African and Middle Eastern migrants fleeing war and poverty in their countries and hoping for a better life in Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Traffickers have exploited the chaos and often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber or wooden boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route. Thousands have drowned along the way. They have been implicated in widespread abuses of migrants, including torture and abduction for ransom.
The number of migrants intercepted and returned to Libya so far this year is more than double the number for 2020, when more than 11,890 were brought back to shore.
Those returned to shore have been taken to government-run detention centers, where they are often abused and extorted for ransom under the very nose of UN officials. They are often held in miserable conditions. Libya’s government receives millions in European aid money paid to slow the tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Guards have been accused of sexually assaulting female migrants in at least one government-run detention center. Many migrants also simply disappear from the detention centers, sold to traffickers or to other centers, The Associated Press reported in 2019.
More than 1,100 migrants were reported dead or presumed dead in numerous boat mishaps and shipwrecks off Libya so far this year, compared to at least 978 reported dead or presumed dead during all of last year, according to IOM.
UN concerned about detained migrants vanishing in Libya
https://arab.news/825z3
UN concerned about detained migrants vanishing in Libya
- The number of migrants intercepted and returned to Libya so far this year is more than double the number for 2020
South Africa kicks out Israel’s top diplomat
- The government filed a case against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2023, saying that its war on Gaza breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention
- Israel said it had expelled South Africa’s charge d’affaires in retaliation for its own representative’s expulsion
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa has declared Israel’s top diplomat in the country “persona non grata” and given him 72 hours to leave, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, citing a “series of violations.”
Ties between the two nations are already strained, with South Africa bringing a case before the UN top court in 2023 to argue that Israel’s war on Gaza, an illegally occupied Palestinian territory, amounted to genocide.
The Israeli government had been informed that its charge d’affaires, Ariel Seidman, had been “declared persona non grata” and “required to depart from the Republic within 72 hours,” the ministry said in a statement.
“This decisive measure follows a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty,” it said.
They included “the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks” on President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The Foreign Ministry also accused the embassy of a “deliberate failure” to inform South Africa of “purported visits by senior Israeli officials.”
South African officials were angered by a tweet from the Israeli Embassy in November that commented: “A rare moment of wisdom and diplomatic clarity from President Ramaphosa.”
Israel said it had expelled South Africa’s charge d’affaires in retaliation for its own representative’s expulsion.
South African government officials also condemned this month’s visit by an Israeli delegation to the Eastern Cape province, which reportedly offered to provide water, healthcare, and agricultural expertise.
The visit, which appeared to catch the government by surprise, was hosted by a traditional Xhosa king, who had met Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a trip to Israel in December last year.
In its statement, the Foreign Ministry accused representatives of Israel of actions that “represent a gross abuse of diplomatic privilege and a fundamental breach of the Vienna Convention.”
“They have systematically undermined the trust and protocols essential for bilateral relations,” it said.
South Africa, which hosts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, is largely supportive of the Palestinian cause and sharply critical of Israel.
Pretoria’s embassy in Tel Aviv has been closed since Nov. 17, 2023.
The government filed a case against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2023, saying that its war on Gaza breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Israel has denied that accusation.
When more than 150 Palestinians flew into South Africa in November without departure stamps from Israel on their passports, the South African foreign minister said there appeared to be “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank.”
“We are suspicious as a South African government about the circumstances surrounding the arrival of the plane,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said.
There have been regular protests in South Africa against the Israeli government’s and military’s actions in Gaza, including calls for the embassy in Pretoria to be closed.
In an editorial in November, Seidman criticized South Africa for maintaining full ties with Iran but framing any engagement with the Israeli state as “illegitimate.”
