publications

VIII. Other Abuses Against Migrants and Refugees

Migrants and refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported a litany of violations unrelated to immigration powers. Both documented and undocumented sub-Saharan Africans staying in Libya during the past five years said they had experienced xenophobia and racism, including violence and discriminatory treatment by authorities and Libyan citizens. They said that they rarely reported crimes committed against them out of fear of the police or a lack of faith in the police’s willingness to pursue their allegations.

Some of the abuses that migrants and refugees reported, such as corruption and extortion, police abuse and due process violations, are endemic to Libya, stemming from the weak rule of law. But many of the abuses seemed related, or at least exacerbated, by the victims’ status as foreigners. Without tribal support, and considered unwanted outsiders by many Libyans, sub-Saharan Africans are particularly vulnerable to abuse.155

Libyan officials emphatically denied that xenophobia or racism existed in a country that welcomed fellow Africans to come and work. “We have harmony between groups,” said Assistant Secretary of Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation Sa`id Eribi Hafiana. “We are an African state.”156

The Libyan government’s April 2006 memo to Human Rights Watch repeated this claim. “The Libyan Jamahiriya was and remains prominent in its role in fighting discrimination as witnessed by the entire world, and clarifies that the problems occur between foreigners themselves and citizens themselves and are not born of any discriminatory practices.”157

Libya’s last report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was even more emphatic. “It is possible to state categorically that there is no racial discrimination of any kind in Libya,” the report said. The reason, the government said, is because Libya has no “religious or ethnic communities that are defined by their religion, race, language, gender, colour or political affiliations.” The fact that all Libyan citizens share a common origin, religion and language “has undoubtedly been a determining factor in the absence of racial discrimination in the country.”158

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination challenged the claim that Libya had no minority groups. In its concluding observations of March 2004, it noted “the discrepancy between the assessment of the State party… and information indicating that Amazigh, Tuareg, and Black African populations live in the country.”159

Article 17 of the Great Green Charter for Human Rights, one of Libya’s fundamental laws, states that “members of the Jamahiriya society reject any discrimination between human beings on the grounds of their color, sex, religion or culture.” The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination pointed out that Libya nevertheless has no comprehensive legislation to prevent, prohibit, or remedy racial discrimination.160

The vast majority of sub-Saharan migrants and refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported regular discrimination during their time in Libya, usually on account of their race. A twenty-nine-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker named Yusuf, who stayed in Libya from May to August 2004, told Human Rights Watch that Libyan citizens stopped him on the street for money six times, beating him when he had nothing to give. “In Libya the government and people are the same,” he said. “You can’t tell who is who, and both are racist.” As a result, Yusuf and other migrants and refugees said that many foreigners in Libya rarely leave their homes, or they do so only for work or to buy food during daylight hours.161

Getachew, a thirty-year-old Ethiopian man, spent two years in Libya illegally beginning in July 2003 before making it to Italy, where he has sought asylum. He had intended to stay in Libya indefinitely, until he realized how difficult life was for undocumented foreigners. “I saw the situation there. I saw how the society reacted to foreigners, immigrants and refugees,” he said. “If you want to move around, to go to the shops, the Libyans ask you for money for cigarettes, and if you say no, they attack you.” Libyan men attacked Getachew three times in the suburbs of Tripoli, he said. “Every time we stood at a bus stop, our money was taken. At every checkpoint on the bus home, you have to pay 40 dinars (approx. €24) to the policeman or you’re arrested.”162

Ephrem S., the twenty-one-year-old Ethiopian who received refugee status in Italy, spent 2000-2002 in Libya without proper documents. “Young Libyans in the street sit around and wait to attack foreigners,” he said. He explained for Human Rights Watch how Libyan men beat him in April 2002. “One day five Libyan men asked me my religion. I responded that I am Christian,” he said. “They asked me my name and then grabbed me and beat me on the back. I don’t know their motive.” He added: “It’s very risky to live there because of the ignorance of the Libyan citizens. You cannot move freely on the streets, cannot attend school, cannot buy things in shops.”163

Most migrants and refugees in Libya work in the informal sector, where they are susceptible to exploitation and abuse. A Liberian refugee, David, who washed cars in Tripoli, told Human Rights Watch that his employers sometimes did not pay for work he had completed, and there was no way to lodge a complaint.164 A young Sudanese man described how he helped sell vegetables for a Libyan man at a market in Tripoli. He worked twelve hours a day, he said, earning on average two dinars a day (approx. €1.20). If business was poor, the pay was one dinar, and sometimes he went home empty handed. After one-and-a-half years, his Libyan boss failed to pay him for a full month. There was no way to seek redress, so he quit.165

In its concluding observations of March 2004, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern that “anti-black sentiment and racially motivated acts against foreign workers have an adverse impact on their employment situation and terms and conditions of employment.” The Committee urged Libya to “ensure that foreign workers are not discriminated against in employment on the basis of their colour or their ethnic or national origin.”166

The International Labour Organization has also raised concerns. In its 2004 report, the ILO noted that “[M]igrant workers make up much of the labour force, but are badly treated. As they are not allowed to form or join trade unions, even the official so-called workers’ organization, the General Federation of Producers/Workers (GUP/N), they have no protection from the discrimination to which they are regularly subjected.”167

Racially Motivated Violence

The largest incident of anti-foreigner violence took place in late September 2000 in Zawiyya, about forty kilometers west of Tripoli, where a mob of Libyans clashed with foreigners, resulting in what most media reports said was up to fifty foreigner deaths. The government said seven people died. The foreigners reportedly came mostly from Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana and Chad but included other sub-Saharan African states.168

Human Rights Watch was unable to conduct a full investigation into the incident, and many details remain unclear, including the number of injured and dead. A top Libyan official at the time denied a major clash, saying some “fights broke out” between Nigerians and Libyans after the Nigerians had teased some Libyan girls. “The police intervened immediately and took the necessary measures and arrested those who were involved,” the official said.169 In response to questions from Human Rights Watch, the Libyan government said in April 2006 that seven people had died in the incident, although it did not specify how many of the victims were Libyans and how many were foreigners.170

According to Saudi and Sudanese newspapers, however, clashes that began on September 20 left up to fifty people dead and dozens hurt. “Most of the victims are Chadian while a certain number of Sudanese, probably around five people, were also killed,” reported the Saudi-owned newspaper al-Hayat, published in London and several Arab capitals. In Khartoum, the daily Akhbar al-Yom reported, “fifty people were killed and dozens hurt in clashes between Libyans on one hand and nationals of the Chadian and Sudanese communities on the other in Zawiyya.”171 The most dramatic reports came from Nigeria, where local media reported that up to 500 Nigerians had died, prompting a violent demonstration in Lagos that left one dead.172

According to a report on Sudanese television, the Sudanese president asked al-Qadhafi to intervene.173 Later in the week, a crowd of Libyan youths reportedly ransacked the embassy of Niger.174

To this day, the Libyan government has not provided details on the Zawiyya incident, although it has claimed that it opened an investigation. In its concluding observations of March 2004, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged Libya to “submit detailed information about the number of persons who died and their nationality, the results of the inquiry made by the authorities, the prosecution of persons in relation to these events, and sentences, if any, that were pronounced.”175 Human Rights Watch also requested information about the incident, but the Libyan government only informed the organization that “seven Libyans and foreigners” had died.

According to Amnesty International, in May 2001 a Libyan court sentenced two Libyans, a Ghanaian and four Nigerians to death for “plotting against the policy of Libya and its leading role in Africa, undermining the aim of the Libyan Jamahiriya of creating a united African entity, and disturbing public order.” The court also convicted the Nigerians and the Ghanaian of “the murder of Libyan citizens and theft.” It is not known if the authorities carried out the executions.176

Human Rights Watch interviewed one man, David B., who said he had witnessed some of the violence at Zawiyya’s so-called Nigerian Camp. According to him, the clash began after a Nigerian murdered a Libyan. A large mob of Libyans threw Molotov cocktails at the camp and set it on fire, he said. Government bulldozers razed the camp, he said, suggesting that the government was involved.177

During the ensuing week, young Libyan men ransacked the house on the outskirts of Tripoli where David B. was living with eight other men from his home country. The nine men fled to their country’s embassy for protection, he said. Crowds smashed the taxi windshield with a stick on the way. According to David B, the embassy was full of women and children who had fled similar attacks.

Some African governments organized the evacuation of their citizens. At least 230 Ghanaians returned home in early October, and Ghanaian officials told the press that at least 5,000 others had been listed for evacuation after the violence.178 The Nigerian government reportedly brought more than 4,000 Nigerians home.179

While the September 2000 events were by far the most violent in recent years, the vast majority of migrants and refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had seen or experienced physical harassment or violence during their stay in Libya, often with little intervention by the police. Sometimes the threats and violence came from the police.

Ahmad, the Sudanese man seeking asylum in Italy, told Human Rights Watch about the violence he endured during his time in Benghazi and Tripoli from 1993 to 2003 as an undocumented migrant. “It was really tough living there. If I took the bus to work, the Libyans threw me off their seats, so I often went by foot. I can’t count the number of times I was beaten up on the street by Libyans,” he said, showing Human Rights Watch scars on his body that he said were from the beatings. “Even if you wear western clothes with English words printed on them, this is a reason for them to beat you. The people in cars try to run you down. There are always insults on the street. You live in fear. I just concentrated on getting home safely from work every day.”180

Ethiopian refugee Alex, who spent six months illegally in Tripoli in 2002, said that all neighborhoods of the capital were equally difficult for foreigners. “Young Libyan people in cars try to run you down in the street or shout insults at you. I don’t understand Arabic, but I understood them saying ‘negro,’” he said. “Once I was attacked in the street in Abu Salim [neighborhood of Tripoli] by some young kids.” Alex also remembered witnessing a more serious attack: “I saw a black man going on a bus home, and he quarreled with the driver. Then they all started fighting. All the passengers beat him up. He was only rescued by an African diplomat who was passing in his car and pulled him into it, safe from the mob.”181

Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees consistently scoffed at the notion of going to the police to report crimes because of the police’s indifference or outright hostility. A thirty-two-year-old Eritrean man, seeking asylum in Italy as of May 2005, had spent five-and-a-half months illegally in Tripoli during 2004; he commented: “I would never have gone to the police [to report violence from Libyans] because they would arrest me. They wouldn’t believe me. There are people who are robbed of $1,000 and don’t go to the police.”182

David B., whose account of the Zawiyya events is given above, told Human Rights what happened when Libyan citizens beat him in August 2002 and he went to the police:

We were three [nationality withheld] getting on a bus. It was crowded. The Libyans got mad and called us “animals.” Someone pulled me from behind. They beat me. People grabbed sticks. They threw stones. A policeman was near, and we went to him. He asked for my passport and then he hit me behind my head. He saw us getting beaten, and he let the guys go free.

We went to the police station, and they said we must get a medical report. We went to Shar`a Zawiyya Hospital. They bandaged my forehead without payment. We went back to the police, and they said “we can do nothing.”183

The Ethiopian asylum seeker Getachew said that young Libyan men looking for drugs and prostitutes sometimes came to his shared house in Tripoli and the houses of other migrants. Once there was a fight in which a Libyan drew a knife and his friends locked four Ethiopian and Eritrean women in a room. Getachew and the other migrants called the police to save the women, who were not prostitutes, he said. The police came and got the women out of the locked room, but they did not arrest the Libyan men, who later returned to the house and threw stones.184

As the example above indicates, non-Muslim women from sub-Saharan Africa appear to have particular problems because some Libyans assume them to be immoral, if not sex workers. A twenty-six-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, `Abd al-M., who worked illegally in Benghazi and Tripoli for a year and a half, said he saw black women face many difficulties. “Black foreign women have to stay in the house in Libya because the Libyan men and boys always try to touch their bodies if they go out,” he said. “Once I saw a Sudanese woman being pulled into a car by some Libyans. This can happen any time – the police see things but they don’t say anything because Libya is ruled by the law of the tribe, not the law of fairness.”185

Miriam, a twenty-three-year-old Eritrean woman seeking asylum in Italy as of May 2005, spent seven months working illegally in Tripoli in early 2004. “I saw so many bad things there: women who were raped, children who threw stones and hit adult men,” she said. “I speak Arabic and dress like an Arab woman, so I was okay, but people who don’t speak the language are in terror of just going to the store.” During her time in Tripoli, Miriam worked illegally in a tea room run by Sudanese employers. “It was better than other work, better than working for a family. I knew many women who worked for families where they were never paid or had boiling water thrown in their faces,” she said.186

Foreigners in the Criminal Justice System

According to the Libyan government, foreigners in Libya are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. Former Secretary of Public Security Nasr al-Mabruk, who left the post in March 2006, told Human Rights Watch that migrants were responsible for 30 percent of Libya’s crimes. “We suffer a lot from this phenomenon,” he said. The commander of the main Zawiyya police station claimed that undocumented migrants might be responsible for as much as 80 percent of certain crimes in his district, such as theft. He also claimed that the rate was high for counterfeiting money and other documents, and for some drug crimes.187 He did not provide any reports or official statistics to support his claims.

Libya’s General Prosecutor Muhammad al-Misrati said that the police arrest many foreigners for crimes. “The police sometimes collect them up like a fishing net,” he said. “But then the prosecutor follows the law.”188 His metaphor suggests the arbitrariness that many foreigners reported during the process of arrest.

Within the Libyan criminal justice system, foreigners enjoy the same legal rights as Libyans. They should be informed of the reason for their arrest, have access to counsel and receive a fair trial. Torture is banned (see Appendix I).

Despite this, migrants and refugees who were arrested under criminal law reported a host of abuses. In some cases, investigators used torture to extract confessions. In many cases, the defendant was not provided a lawyer, or the first time they saw legal counsel was at their trial. Migrants and refugees said they frequently endured long periods of pre-trial detention. And in court, the translation was sometimes very poor, if provided at all.

With the exception of the issue of translation, the abuses listed above are not unique to foreigners – Libyan citizens also experience such abuse. But without tribal support networks, and often viewed as unwanted outsiders, foreigners are particularly vulnerable to violations of the law.

Torture

Libyan law makes torture a crime. The government has repeatedly claimed that it investigates and prosecutes cases in which torture is alleged. “We will not allow any police officer to subject any person to torture,” former Secretary of Public Security Nasr al-Mabruk told Human Rights Watch. “When we learn of a violation by a policeman we inform Justice.”189

Former General Secretary of the General People’s Committee Shukri Ghanim told Human Rights Watch that torture is strictly against state policy and, if it took place, was the result of “sick” individuals who must be held accountable. “The difference is whether it is a premeditated policy or an abuse of power,” he said. He maintained that the problem could be solved by training.190

Article 2 of the Great Green Charter for Human Rights proscribes any punishment that would “violate the dignity and the integrity of a human being.” It prohibits “any and all injuries, whether physical or moral, against the person of a prisoner.” Article 17 of Law 20, On Enhancing Freedom, states: “It is prohibited to inflict any form of corporal or psychological punishment on the accused, or to treat him with severity or degradation, or in any manner which is damaging to his dignity as a human being.”

Article 435 of the penal code states that, “[A]ny public official who orders the torture of the accused or tortures them himself shall be punished by a prison term of three to ten years.” Article 341 of the code stipulates a prison sentence of ten years for those who carry out the order. Article 337 of the code imposes imprisonment on “any public official who uses violence against any person while on duty in a way that is degrading and causes physical pain.”

The Libyan government says it has taken all possible steps to minimize torture. In an October 20, 2005 statement, in response to Human Rights Watch allegations of torture, the government announced:

The Libyan people have enshrined in all their Basic People’s Congresses and reaffirmed in their fundamental documents such as the Declaration of the People’s Authority, the Great Green Charter for Human Rights and the Freedom Consolidation Act [also known as the Law on Enhancing Freedom] that degrading punishments must be abolished and all penalties that curb freedom must be restricted to a minimum. Prison is only for those whose freedom poses a danger to others. The harshest penalties have been prescribed for all who inflict any torture or mistreatment on detainees. However the competent authorities did not deny that violations by some individuals have been detected and appropriate measures were taken to hold them accountable and put them on trial.191

Nevertheless, many of the migrants and refugees Human Rights Watch spoke with complained of torture after their arrest, usually by the special police, known as the mukafaha, who deal with drug-related crimes. Human Rights Watch interviewed six non-Libyan nationals in prison for the possession or sale of drugs or alcohol who said they had been tortured, usually by the police, to extract a confession.

One man from sub-Saharan Africa imprisoned for possession of drugs told Human Rights Watch that members of the mukafaha in Tripoli beat him after his arrest in 2004. He said:

They hung me by a chain from the wall. There was a stick behind my knees, and my hands were tied to it. They hung me up on the wall. I stayed like that for forty-five minutes. They were beating me during that time. They told me “If we kill you, no one will know.”’192

Another prisoner from sub-Saharan Africa gave a similar account. He said that Libyan authorities held him in Zawiyya police station without food or water for some days after his arrest in August 2003. He alleged that mukafaha agents then tied his hands behind his back and used a piece of wood or an iron bar to hang him from the wall. This happened for two or three hours at a time, he said, and sometimes he was beaten too. After six days he signed a confession in Arabic that he said he could not read. “The first time I saw my lawyer was the second to last [court] session,” he said.193

Another sub-Saharan African arrested for drug possession in May 2004 said the police held him in the Geria police station for three days without food or water. Then, in the mukafaha, interrogators hung him for four hours with his hands behind his back. He said:

They put an iron rod behind my back and they hung me. It was for about four hours. They beat me with a cable on my legs… They hung me every day. On the fourth day – it was Friday – I had to write my statement.194

According to the man, he did not know what the statement said. “I was afraid because I have my family and I don’t want to die,” he told Human Rights Watch. “Because I was afraid, anything they asked me to do, I did it. In the mukafaha, I signed something under duress. I don’t know what it said.”

Some migrants and refugees said they were abused in regular police stations. A sub-Saharan African man arrested in 2005 in Sirte said he was taken to a police station in the town. “They made me stand for two days,” he told Human Rights Watch. “I had carbon paper and they thought I was counterfeiting money… They beat me like a prisoner of war.”195

Another sub-Saharan African charged in 2004 with drinking and with forging money was taken to a police station (he did not state the location) where he claims the police beat him:

I was handcuffed, and they put wood under my knees, and they flogged me with a cable on the bottom of my feet. They asked us who owned the fake money. They beat all of us. They beat us for one day. They said we should admit that the money was ours. I don’t speak Arabic. I signed a statement, but I did not understand it.196

One man from sub-Saharan Africa who was charged with a group of men for murder said that interrogators had subjected him to torture in Misrata. He told Human Rights Watch:

For five months I could not sit down. It was a room four by four feet. I could not lie down. They questioned us. First they brought me in, and for ten days they didn’t speak to me. After ten days, they brought a rope, and they tied my hands and legs together, and they hung me up. Then every day for five months, they took me out and beat me up…. They beat us with a cable on the bottom of our feet…. I confessed under the beating.197

According to the man, after the beatings the authorities held him in a solitary confinement cell for twenty days, five more than Libyan law allows. He got food three times per day in his cell and was allowed a shower every day, he said, although he was not allowed to exercise in the courtyard.

Human Rights Watch visited the main police station in Zawiyya, one of six stations in the town. The commanding officer there said, “The citizen has full freedom to complain [about torture].” He was not able to provide Human Rights Watch with information on how many complaints of abuse people had registered in Zawiyya or how many police officers, if any, had been disciplined for abusing detainees.198

Unfair Trials

Migrants and refugees Human Rights Watch interviewed in Libyan prisons made consistent and credible complaints of due process violations in their cases from the time of arrest. Common complaints included not being informed promptly of the reason for their arrest, lengthy periods of pre-trial detention, restricted access to a lawyer, poor translation during the trial and the inability to mount an adequate defense.

A Nigerian man, Iniko, who came to Libya to work as a welder and car mechanic, said he was arrested in March 2004 in Tripoli’s Janzur district while coming home from an Internet café. The police took him to the police station in Janzur and then to the mukafaha. According to the man, the authorities did not tell him the reason for his arrest for thirty days, when he first appeared before a judge, and he then waited eleven months before his trial, which ended in conviction. He said he did not know the length of his sentence because the interpreter left the trial before telling him. His sentence began in March 2004, and he said he thought he was due to get out soon.199

A forty-four-year-old Ghanaian man, Kwami, who had lived in Libya for ten years, said the police arrested him in July 2004 for making wine.200 He met his state appointed lawyer for the first time on the day of the trial in February 2005, he said, and the two men did not speak directly. The trial took two minutes, and the translation was poor, so he could not fully communicate with the court. Kwami said he wanted to file an appeal but he did not know how.201

One sub-Saharan African who claimed to have confessed to a drug crime after torture by the mukafaha in Zawiyya said that his trial lasted four months, with adjournments, and involved six sessions, but he only got a public lawyer at the final sentencing in January 2004. The first time he spoke with the lawyer was in the courtroom. “We had asked for a government lawyer at the beginning,” he said. “They said, ‘You have drugs, so why don’t you have money for a private lawyer?’”202

At another prison, a young migrant from Nigeria, Ibrahim, told Human Rights Watch that during his court appearance in 2003 for possession of heroin, the judges asked him no questions and he did not speak. According to Ibrahim, he had neither a lawyer nor an interpreter, and therefore could not understand the proceedings. The judge eventually sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment and fined him 1,000 dinars, he said.203

Libyan officials and lawyers agree that interpretation is a problem due to the lack of qualified interpreters. This results in delays before a defendant can go to court. A bigger problem is the general backlog in the criminal justice system, which forces people to wait for up to one year in pre-trial detention.

According to a public defender Human Rights Watch interviewed at the Benghazi appeals court, if the court cannot find an interpreter for a foreigner who speaks an unusual language, then the person is treated by the court “as if he or she were deaf,” although it remains unclear what this means. Such instances are rare, the public lawyer said: “Usually defendants find friends to speak for them, or the embassy sends an interpreter. A defendant has to insist if he or she wants to change the interpreter assigned to him or her.”204

Libya’s General Prosecutor al-Misrati told Human Rights Watch that non-nationals have a right to counsel, including a right to a public defender if they have no means to hire a lawyer, and the right to apply for bail as a pre-trial detainee. Non-nationals are supposed to pay a fee to get a public lawyer, but usually this is waived.205

Prison Conditions

Libya currently has thirty-four prisons, called “correction and rehabilitation facilities.” In addition, the Internal Security Agency runs other detention facilities for security suspects and prisoners, such as Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. According to the director of the national prison authority, Brig. Belqassim Gargoom, Libya had 12,860 prisoners as of late April 2005.206 Of these, 40 percent were non-Libyans.207

In recent years, prison conditions in Libya have improved, prisoners and lawyers said. The government has refurbished some facilities, and since September 2004 it is participating in a project with the International Centre for Prison Studies, funded by the U.K. government, to “improve the standard of human rights in the Libyan prisons.”208

Human Rights Watch visited five prisons in Libya. Each of them held both Libyans and foreigners, and one of them – al-Kuwaifiyya in Benghazi – held women. In general the conditions seemed adequate. In each prison, the prisoners said the area had recently been cleaned, and in some places, the smell of fresh paint was strong. At Janduba prison, inmates said that a ping-pong table had been delivered the day before Human Rights Watch researchers arrived.209

Despite conditions appearing adequate, prisoners and pre-trial detainees expressed a number of complaints. Most serious was the use of physical violence by guards as punishment. While punitive beatings are not limited to non-nationals, they apparently occurred more frequently against non-Libyans. “If you complain, they beat you seriously – the Africans. It is difficult for them to beat a Libyan,” one prisoner said.210 A prisoner in another prison told Human Rights Watch: “If you make trouble, the guards beat you. I myself have never been beaten, but I see this happen at least two or three times a week.” He added that the beatings often happen after the prisoners have broken the rules. “Prisoners use sharpened spoons as weapons and start fights,” he said. “As punishment, they are taken to solitary confinement and beaten.”211

It is the job of the General Prosecutor’s office to investigate reports of abuse by the judicial police in the prison system. Human Rights Watch saw complaint boxes in each prison visited. Brigadier Gargoom conceded that all guards were “not angels,” but he said that they investigated all complaints of abuse, and punished or prosecuted those found to have used force unnecessarily or in excess. “We do not deny the existence of excessive use of force,” he said. “But if it occurs, the officer is discharged.”212

According to Brigadier Gargoom, the main problem in the prisons is overcrowding. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, Libyan prisons are operating at an occupancy level of 140 percent.213

Most Sub-Saharan Africans interviewed said there was no problem of racism among the prisoners. Brigadier Gargoom agreed. “There is no racism,” he said. “They are integrated together.” In al-Kuwaifiyya prison in Benghazi, a foreign Christian prisoner told Human Rights Watch that the authorities allowed him to practice his religion freely.214

Under the terms of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which Libya is a party, embassies must be notified of the imprisonment or detention of any of their nationals if the detained national so requests.215 Human Rights Watch found cases where such notification had apparently not taken place. A foreign man in al-Kuwaifiyya prison, for example, said that his sisters and parents in his home country had no idea where he is. He and six others had not been able to contact their embassy, he said.216 Another man who had not been able to contact his embassy told Human Rights Watch:

I don’t know when my wife died. I learned of it in May last year. I requested to see her and they said, “Sorry, but we must tell you that she died.” My twins are between five and six years old…I don’t know where they are… I didn’t contact my embassy. I believe they know we’re here, but they do nothing.217

The Libyan government blames the embassies for negligence in responding to the needs of their nationals. Human Rights Watch interviewed a diplomat in Tripoli from one sub-Saharan country who said that the Libyan police arrested so many of his co-nationals – hundreds every week – that the authorities did not notify the embassies on a regular basis. The authorities occasionally grant him access to a prison, he said, but they only allow him to visit convicted criminals and not those awaiting trial.218

Refugees who find themselves in prison are obviously reluctant to contact their embassies if they fear persecution by their home government. Without UNHCR access to prisons, such people have no alternative authority to contact for help.219

Brigadier Gargoom told Human Rights Watch that the Libyan government had deported 1,800 foreigners, Africans and non-Africans, to their home countries in 2004. These were, he said, convicted criminals deported as part of their sentence.

Executions of Foreigners

Libyan leader Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi and the Libyan government have long talked about abolishing the death penalty. Article 8 of the Great Green Charter for Human Rights, enacted in 1988, states: “The goal of the Jamahiryan society is to abolish capital punishment.”

According to `Ali `Umar Abu Bakr, Secretary of Justice until March 2006, legal experts are drafting a new penal code which will reduce the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be applied to “the greatest possible extent,” leaving it in place only for “terrorism” and “the most serious crimes.”220 Secretary Bakr said the new code would be introduced to the General People’s Congresses for review by the end of 2005 but, as of May 2006, the penal code had not been submitted. Until the new penal code comes into effect, Secretary Bakr said, the government has imposed a de facto moratorium on executions.221

Despite this claim, the Libyan government is continuing to execute prisoners. Two sources in Libya with knowledge of the cases who wished to remain anonymous told Human Rights Watch that the authorities had executed two Nigerians convicted of murder in April 2005.222

In mid-July, Libyan authorities executed four Egyptian citizens: `Arafa `Ali `Abd al-Latif, Majid al-Sa`id Muhammad, Barakat `Abd al-Zahir, and Basyuni Ahmad al-Tayyib. They were among fifteen Egyptians sentenced to death for murder in 2004. Human Rights Watch has no information about the executed men or the other prisoners in the case.223 Also in July, Libyan authorities executed two Turkish citizens, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, which announced on July 14 that Selim Aslan and Yunus Ozkan had been put to death for a murder committed in 1995.224

Human Rights Watch asked the Libyan government how many executions the authorities had carried out in 2005, and how many of these people were foreigners but, as of May 1, 2006, the government had not replied.




155 Tribes play an important role in Libya’s social, political and economic life and membership in a powerful tribe provides protection and support.

156 Human Rights Watch interview with Sa`id Eribi Hafiana, Tripoli, April 21, 2005.

157 Libyan government memo to Human Rights Watch, April 18, 2006. See Appendix I.

158 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Seventeenth Periodic Report of States Parties Due in 2002, June 18, 2003, CERD/C/431/Add.5.

159 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, March 12, 2004, CERD/C/64/CO/4.

160 Ibid.

161 Human Rights Watch interview with Yusuf G., Rome, May 24, 2005.

162 Human Rights Watch interview with Getachew J., Rome May 24, 2005.

163 Human Rights Watch interview with Ephrem S., Rome, May 24, 2005.

164 Human Rights Watch interview with David B., Tripoli, April 21, 2005.

165 Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad A., Rome, May 27, 2005. Law No. 6 (1987), article 12, requires employers to declare all non-Libyan employees within seven days. The new immigration law (No. 2 (2004)) and its implementing regulations require foreigners to hold a work permit or leave the country and impose penalties on employers who do not register any foreign employee with the authorities.

166 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, March 12, 2004, CERD/C/64/CO/4.

167 International Labour Organization, Workers Group Secretariat 2004 Factsheet, available at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actrav/new/ilc04/file4.pdf, as of March 6, 2006.

168 “Libya Tightens Security,” BBC News, September 27, 2000, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/943863.stm as of March 7, 2006.

169 “Libyan Minister Says Reports of Clashes in Libya are ‘Baseless,’” Agence France-Presse, September 26, 2000.

170 Libyan government memo to Human Rights Watch, April 18, 2006. See Appendix I.

171 “Around 50 Africans Killed in Clashes in Libya: Press Reports,” Agence France-Presse, September 26, 2000.

172 Segun Adeyemi, “One Killed in Anti-Libyan Protest,” PANA news agency, October 12, 2000 and “At Least 500 Nigerians Reported Dead in Libya,” PANA news agency, October 8, 2000.

173 “Sudan Calls on Qadhafi to Intervene in Libyan Clashes,” BBC Monitoring Middle East, Sudan TV, September 26, 2000.

174 “Niger Embassy Ransacked in Libyan Capital,” Agence France-Presse, September 30, 2000.

175 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, March 12, 2004, CERD/C/64/CO/4.

176 Amnesty International, “Annual Report 2002,” available at http://web.amnesty.org/report2002/mde/libya!Open, as of April 29, 2006.

177 Human Rights Watch interview with David B., Tripoli, April 21, 2005.

178 “First Batch of Evacuees Arrives from Libya,” BBC Monitoring Service: Africa, October 10, 2000, taken from PANA news agency, October 8, 2000.

179 Segun Adeyemi, “One Killed in Anti-Libyan Protest,” PANA news agency, October 12, 2000.

180 Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad A., Rome, May 27, 2005.

181 Human Rights Watch interview with Alex M., Rome, May 25, 2005.

182 Human Rights Watch interview with Estefanos H., Rome, May 26, 2005.

183 Human Rights Watch interview with David B., Tripoli, April 21, 2005.

184 Human Rights Watch interview with Getachew J., Rome, May 24, 2005.

185 Human Rights Watch interview with `Abd al-M., Rome, May 27, 2005.

186 Human Rights Watch interview with Miriam H., Rome, May 25, 2005. Miriam has Eritrean parents but was born and raised in Sudan; she has citizenship documents from neither country.

Under Libyan law, domestic workers are banned. Article 22 of the Great Green Charter for Human Rights states: “The members of the Jamahiriyan society consider servants as the slaves of modern times, enslaved by their masters… For this reason, the Jamahiriyan society proscribes recourse to servants in the home. The house must be maintained by its owners.”

187 Human Rights Watch interview with commander of the Zawiyya police station, name unknown, May 2, 2005.

188 Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad al-Misrati, General Prosecutor, April 28, 2005.

189 Human Rights Watch interview with Nasr al-Mabruk, Tripoli, April 26, 2005.

190 Human Rights Watch interview with Shukri Ghanim, Tripoli, April 28, 2005.

191 “Statement by Secretary for Information Affairs at the Foreign Liaison Secretariat,” October 20 2005. See “Tripoli “Surprised” by Charges of Torture in Libya, Agence France-Presse, October 19, 2005. The full statement is available at “Libya Denies Torture Cases Reported by Human Rights Watch,” BBC Monitoring Middle East, translated from the Jana News Agency, October 19, 2005.

                The Libyan government was responding to a Human Rights Watch statement on torture in Libya. (See Human Rights Watch, “U.K.: Torture a Risk in Libya Deportation Accord,” October 18, 2005, available at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/10/18/libya11890.htm, as of May 7, 2006.)

192 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

193 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

194 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

195 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

196 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

197 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

198 Human Rights Watch interview with police officers in Zawiyya police station, names unknown, Zawiyya, May 2, 2005.

199 Human Rights Watch interviews with Iniko O., April 26, 2005.

200 In Libya, the production, sale and consumption of alcohol are illegal.

201 Human Rights Watch interview with Kwami D., `Ain Zara prison, April 26, 2005.

202 Human Rights Watch interview, name, place and date withheld.

203 Human Rights Watch interview with man Ibrahim K., al-Kuwaifiyya prison, April 23, 2005.

204 Human Rights Watch interview with Juma` Abdullah Buzaid, Benghazi, April 23, 2005.

205 Human Rights Watch interview with `Ali `Umar Abu Bakr, April 28, 2005.

206 Human Rights Watch interview with Brig. Belqassim Gargoom, Director of the Prison Authority, Benghazi, April 23, 2005.

207 Ibid.

208 Website of the International Centre for Prison Studies, available at http://www.prisonstudies.org/, as of March 7, 2006.

209 Human Rights Watch interview Jandouba prison, April 30, 2005, name withheld.

210 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld.

211 Human Rights Watch interview, name, date and place withheld. According to Brig. Gargoom, the normal maximum time allowed in solitary confinement is fifteen days. On his personal approval, the time can be extended to thirty days.

212 Human Rights Watch interview with Brig. Belqassim Gargoom, Benghazi, April 23, 2005.

213 International Centre for Prison Studies, “Prison Brief for Libya,” updated December 14, 2005, available at http://www.prisonstudies.org, as of March 7, 2006.

214 Human Rights Watch interview with George J., al-Kuwaifiyya prison, Benghazi, April 23, 2005.

215 Article 36, Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Optional Protocols, U.N.T.S. Nos. 8638-8640, vol. 596, pp. 262-512, done at Vienna, on 24 April 1963. Asylum seekers and others who fear contact with the embassy would be covered by the provision in the Convention (Article 36.1(c)) that “consular officials shall refrain from taking action on behalf of a national who is in prison, custody or detention if [the national] expressly opposes such action.”

216 Human Rights Watch interview with Ibrahim K., al-Kuwaifiyya prison, April 23, 2005.

217 Human Rights Watch interview with George J., al-Kuwaifiyya Prison, Benghazi, April 23, 2005.

218 Human Rights Watch interview with member of the Tripoli diplomatic corps, name, date and place withheld.

219 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has no presence in Libya. The country is covered by ICRC’s regional delegation in Tunisia.

220 Human Rights Watch interview with `Ali `Umar Abu Bakr, Tripoli, April 28, 2005.

221 For a detailed discussion on the death penalty, see the Human Rights Watch report, “Words to Deeds: The Urgent Need for Human Rights Reform,” pp. 31-34.

222 Human Rights Watch interviews, Tripoli, May 2005, names withheld.

223 Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, “Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, in its Campaign Against the Death Sentence, Condemns the Execution of Four Egyptians in Libya,” July 21, 2005; and Libyan League for Human Rights, “Libya: Four Executions by Firing Squad,” July 26, 2005. See also “4 Egyptians Executed in Libya without Fair Trial,” Agence France Presse, July 21, 2005.

224 Anadolu Agency, July 14, 2005.