Migrants rescued by MSF, survivors and the horror of Libya: “Beaten and killed”

“My third attempt to cross the sea was from Zawiya, Libya, in August 2020. We were about 50 people on a wooden boat. At 1.30am we went to the beach and left. We went to sea for a day and a half. Then we were captured by the Libyan coast guard. They took us back to Al-Khoms. Like the last two times I returned, the coast guard beat us and beat us. ” Thus begins the story of one of the 410 migrants rescued by Geo Barents and disembarked yesterday in Augusta, in Syracuse, after seven days at sea. Among them women, children and even 91 unaccompanied minors. The volunteers of Doctors Without Borders collect the testimonies of the horror experienced in Libya. “Some of the survivors have told their heartbreaking survival stories as they attempt to cross the deadliest migration route in the world,” the NGO said. This is the case of the young Sudanese from Darfur. “When we arrived at the port of Al-Khoms – he continues -, my friends and I tried to escape. The police opened fire on us and two of my friends died. Three others were injured. They were my friends,” but I had to run away, because if they caught me, I knew they would kill me too. ” “The children on the boat were crying a lot”, says a man from the Ivory Coast, recounting the three days spent at sea “without anything to eat or drink”. “We were on the lower deck of this wooden boat and we couldn’t breathe anymore. We had fuel tanks that had just run out when MSF came to rescue us.” On the other hand, a 23-year-old from Sudan tells the story of the days of detention in Libya. “Even four days there are too long and dangerous,” he says, recalling the month he spent in a center in Beni Walid. “I had to pay for my freedom to get out and reach Al Khoms.” Then the trip aboard a cart of the sea with another 75 people on board. “We saw a plane above us. He took pictures. Two planes. One white, in the morning and one gray, in the evening. Immediately afterwards a boat arrived.” “A government boat came and brought us back – he says. again – We were taken back to a camp, I don’t know where we were, maybe Tripoli, they were beating us. Everyone. We were in a dark room and we were not allowed to raise our heads, otherwise they beat us even more. So I don’t know how many people were kept with me. All Sudanese were kept in the same place, while others were somewhere else. They beat us in the evening – he continues -. Then they took us to a smaller room where we had to sit for two days . After that, they drove us to a bigger place but still full of 740 people. No windows, nothing. ” “They would have hit you with everything they found – he says -. On the head, on the arms, on the legs: wherever they could take you if people don’t sit as they want or raise their heads. The people sitting next to me had legs, arms and skulls broken from the beatings. After 19 days in the dark and beatings, I asked the guards to release me. My leg hurt because it was infected. They told me that if I didn’t pay, I would stay there and die. My family in Sudan she managed to send me money. When I was out, I didn’t know where to go. I stayed in another Sudanese person’s house waiting for my family to send me more money. In Zuwara, that Friday, when we walked in sea, we were 100 “. Almost two days after the Geo Barents rescue.