SYRACUSE, Italy: The mayday relay came in from Eagle 3, a surveillance aircraft for the EU’s Frontex border agency — a rubber boat crammed with 70 people was taking on water off the coast of Libya.
Humanity 1, a rescue ship operated by the German NGO SOS Humanity, rushed to the scene and found the boat’s bow rising to breaking point, with people falling overboard, panicked and exhausted after two days at sea.
Most were unaccompanied minors who had fled Sudan’s war.
Among those rescued was Farid, a 17-year-old who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his identity. He had come from the city of Al-Fashir in Sudan’s North Darfur state.
“The helicopters still haunt me. Airstrike after airstrike. Dead bodies everywhere,” he said, sitting on the deck of Humanity 1 last November.
Tens of thousands have been killed since fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in 2023.
More than 12 million people have been displaced, and 24.6 million — half the country’s population — need food assistance.
Farid said the warring factions were stealing food aid and selling it.
“That’s why so many are dying in Al-Fashir. They are starving.”
On his way from Sudan, Farid passed through Kufra, an isolated area in southeastern Libya where mass graves containing the bodies of scores of migrants have been discovered. Kufra is controlled by rival armed groups, representing the Arab Zway majority and the ethnic Tebu minority.
When he arrived outside Kufra, Farid found hundreds of Sudanese refugees crowded by the roadside seeking assistance.
He was offered a mattress and some food by Libyan authorities, but in return he was forced to work long hours collecting plastic waste for recycling. He was paid nothing.
When he complained, he was told that if he caused any problems, he would be sold to a rival militia or worse.
“Kufra is a tribal area. And we are slaves in their land,” Farid said, his voice trembling.
“They make us fight for them or sell us into forced labor. If you refuse, they can take your organs and bury you by the road.”
“SNAKES AND LADDERS“
According to the UN refugee agency, there are more than 210,000 Sudanese refugees in Libya, accounting for 73 percent of all refugees. Hundreds more arrive each day.
Since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has been torn by factional conflict and is a major route for migrants fleeing war and poverty.
Most Sudanese arrive through Kufra, then move north to cities like Ajdabiya in the east or the coastal capital Tripoli.
Many, like Farid, are abused and women, in particular, face extreme violence.
“I saw a girl being beaten and raped. They killed her and left her on the street,” Farid said. “The mother took her body back to Sudan. She’d rather die in the war than stay in Libya.”
Ahmed, a 19-year-old Sudanese man also using a pseudonym, said he was held captive in a smuggler’s warehouse near Zawiya, a northwestern coastal city, for four months.
“There’s a chain of detention centers that you work your way through, from Kufra in the south to Zawiya or Ain Zara in the north. You have to pay for your release each time. If you get caught again, you start over, like a game of snakes and ladders.”
EU FUNDS
Ahmed said the Libyan coast guard ran a “small boat lottery,” with the fate of a migrant depending on the fee they paid.
He said fees could range up to $15,000 per crossing, with those who pay more — often Egyptians or Syrians — getting better treatment and having more chance of success than those who pay less, often including Sudanese and Eritreans.
Since 2015, the EU has allocated more than 465 million euros for equipment and training for Libyan authorities to stem the flow of migrants into southern Europe.
Rights groups say the EU policy of farming out immigration control to third countries in return for aid leads to abuse and fails to address underlying issues.
The European Court of Auditors said in a September report on the EUTF that there was a lack of follow-up on allegations of human rights violations.
A 2023 UN fact-finding mission said crimes against humanity had been committed against migrants in Libya in some detention centers managed by units that received EU backing.
Libyan authorities have previously denied abuse.
A European Commission spokesperson said in an email that no EU funding goes directly to any Libyan authority, but goes exclusively to implementing partners, either international organizations or member states.
The EU aims to bolster Libyan capacity to save lives at sea and in the desert and fight smuggling and human trafficking networks that profit from irregular migration, the spokesperson said, adding that the EU was also supporting local authorities’ efforts to address the situation of Sudanese refugees.
“The EU strongly encourages the Libyan government to ensure a thorough follow-up to any reports of abuses,” the spokesperson said, adding that the EU has been raising these issues as part of ongoing dialogue on migration with Libyan authorities.
As Humanity 1 headed toward Calabria in Italy, Ahmed reflected on his journey and said that despite the multiple risks he would do it all again.
“I don’t want to be killed by my brothers in Sudan,” he said. As for Libya — “Dying at sea is better. The sea will not torture you.”
