Grim Testimony of Brutalized Refugees Fleeing Through Libya

Rape was so commonplace women took

contraceptives before travelling

© Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters

Horrifying testimony given by refugees who were subjected to rape, violence and exploitation while fleeing Libya has been published by the UK wing of NGO, Amnesty International.

In a new report from the human rights group, the horrific stories of 90 migrants who made it to camps in Italy are recounted.

They include graphic details of violence, exploitation, and rape of desperate people at the hands of people smugglers.

One man, a 24 year old Eritrean, described how “smugglers abandoned a disabled man in the desert as they crossed the Libyan border heading to the town of Sabha.”

“We saw them throw one man [out of the pick-up truck] into the desert. He was still alive. He was a disabled man,” he said.

An 18 year old Somalian claimed that “when you [arrive in] Libya, that’s when the struggle starts. That’s when they start to beat you.”

He said smugglers denied his group water and shot some Syrian refugees when they asked for some.

“The first Syrian died, he was young, maybe 21 years old. After this they gave us water, but the other Syrian man also died… he was only 19,” the man said.

Smugglers carried out acts of sexual violence on women refugees. A 22 year old Eritrean said that she witnessed the rape of a woman who smugglers falsely accused of not paying for her passage.

“Her family couldn’t pay the money again. They took her away and she was raped by five Libyan men. They took her out late at night. No one opposed it, everyone was too afraid,” she said.

The report found that most of the women interviewed lived in fear of sexual violence as they travelled, to the point that many “said rape was so commonplace that they took contraceptive pills before travelling.”

Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Magdalena Mughrabi said on the NGO’s website that “Their experiences paint a terrifying picture of the conditions many of those who come to Europe are so desperate to escape.”

Is it a coincidence that all the countries named in this post are Muslim? Syrian refugees fleeing to Libya have to pass through several other Muslim countries to get there, none of which, apparently, were fit to live in. So they escape to Europe where there is civilization, but in such large numbers, and with such high birth rates, that in a couple of generations Europe will be mostly Muslim, whereupon Europe won't be fit to live in either. 

Many European governments think they are immune to this, but they will wake up one day and find that they are not, only then it will be too late.

Refugee Girls, Women Subject to Sexual Violence en Route to Europe, Says Rights Group

'It's taking a long time for the international community ... to wake up to this crisis'

Refugees walk to a chartered train at the railway station of Passau, Germany, on Jan. 5. Many women and girls making the journey to Europe, especially those travelling alone, have been subject to sexual harassment or violence, Amnesty International says. (Armin Weigel/Associated Press)

The Associated Press

Women and girl refugees coming into Europe face violence and sexual harassment at every stage of their journey, according to a new report from Amnesty International.

This can't be a surprise to anyone! Seriously!

The report released by the human rights group was based on interviews with 40 women and girls in Germany and Norway last month who had traveled from Turkey to Greece and then across the Balkans.

Women and girls traveling alone or accompanied only by children said they felt particularly under threat in Hungary, Croatia and Greece, where they were forced to sleep alongside hundreds of male refugees. Those interviewed included female refugees from Iraq and Syria.

The vast majority of the refugees and migrants streaming into Europe are men, which leaves women particularly vulnerable, aid workers say. Women at camps reported having to use the same bathroom and shower facilities as men, and some said they did not eat or drink to avoid going to the toilet.

The report did not separate out incidents of sexual harassment from general violence. One 22-year-old Iraqi woman told Amnesty International that a uniformed security guard in Germany offered her clothes in exchange for spending time alone with him.

Some aid workers say violence is harder to prevent because of an ad hoc system for receiving and registering refugees.

"One of the challenges we have been facing is that it is taking a long time for the international community, and by that I mean governments, to wake up to this crisis and to realize that it is not something that they can wish away," Jenny Becker, protection co-ordinator with the International Rescue Committee in northern Lesbos, Greece, told The Associated Press.

© The Associated Press, 2016