What has been happening to the Eritrean detainees in Libya?

The Eritrean government is behind what is happening to our people in Libyan prisons. They really want to take back those who left the country, and punish them. The tragedy of many of those who try to leave Eritrea with a dream of a new and decent life in other countries is that they end up in a Libyan hell-hole where they are imprisoned incommunicado, raped and otherwise tortured, and then, if they survive this inhuman treatment, they are sent back to Eritrea for more of the same.

Eritreans deported from Libya, or any country, will languish in unknown Eritrean prisons, many dying in detention because of the harsh conditions. These Eritreans are people so desperate for a different way of life that they will cross the Sahara desert even when they don't have enough to eat and drink, even at the risk of dying before they reach their destination. And what is there to meet them when they reach these supposed havens, assuming they have dodged the bullets that greet so many of them?

Robbery, detention, rape, starvation, and torture.

I see this as torture by extension: the Eritrean government is extending its terror to Libya. Naturally, like any dehumanising oppressor, the truth is withheld as much as possible from the rest of the world, from its victims and would-be victims. But always there will be a voice crying out. They cannot silence all the sufferers all the time. All those who aim for total control are doomed to failure in the end, but this provides little support to those who are suffering even as I write this, those who have to hide their mobiles during searches, those who have to hide their only means of communication with the outside world. They know they will be beaten, perhaps to the point of death, but what choice do they have?

I want to speak about the suffering and the fear of those who are in Libyan prisons right now.

Location: Gruble-2 Prison

The prison guards at Gruble-2 prisons call for a meeting soon after lunch, on 11/01/10, and gather all the Eritrean detainees in the compound urging them to fill in the forms provided by Eritrean officials from the Eritrean Embassy in Tripoli. If the Eritrean detainees do not comply with the order, they are told, the water and food supply will be cut off. There are sick and frail people in that prison, and with the heat and unhygienic situation, how do they expect them to survive? The water supply is not restored till 6 pm.

The filling in of the forms would lead to certain identification and deportation, though false promises of employment are made. Since only the very gullible or broken in spirit will sign, the guards resort to beatings, torture and electric-shock

On 03/01/10, the Libyan security forces brutally and aggressively beat the Eritrean detainees in Surinam prison when they attempt to refuse to have their photos taken. After the beating, and when the detainees are too weak to resist any longer, their photos are taken. One detainee has sustained a severe head injury for which he has so far received no treatment.

Nobody who could help or act as witness visits the prison. Nothing is done to stop this gross violation of human rights.

Meanwhile, in Gruble-2, the beatings continue. Three Eritrean detainees are unconscious; two other are painfully handcuffed, and three are locked in Room-1, their fates still undecided. Twenty-one others who were blood tested and found to be ill with hepatitis and those who have skin rashes due to harsh prison conditions are all locked up in Room-6, without treatment. About 50 Eritrean female and 94 male detainees in Zawya and Zeleten prisons respectively are going through the same ordeal at the moment.

All of these souls were simply citizens looking for a better life who were criminalised for leaving Eritrea, which, in a country where there is no justice system, they were branded as detainees, treated as prisoners, and not even as prisoners with basic human rights. The beatings, the torture, the rape, the starvation and the Eritrean officials’ visits to the prisons continue.

Although, Human Rights Concern – Eritrea, concerned citizens and other human rights organisations are reporting these cruel, barbaric and sadistic acts on a daily basis, so far it has not ceased and the fate of the detainees is unknown.

Elizabeth Chyrum
London, U.K
13 January 2010