16 January 2019
"The Souq al Khamis detention centre in Khoms, Libya, is so close to the sea that migrants and refugees can hear waves crashing on the shore. Its detainees – hundreds of men, women and children – were among 15,000 people caught trying to cross the Mediterranean in flimsy boats in 2018, after attempting to reach Italy and the safety of Europe."
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See: Rescued at sea, locked up, then sold to smugglers (The Irish Times, link):
"They’re now locked in rooms covered in graffiti, including warnings that refugees may be sold to smugglers by the guards that watch them.
This detention centre is run by the UN-backed Libyan government’s department for combatting illegal migration (DCIM). Events here over the last few weeks show how a hardening of European migration policy is leaving desperate refugees with little room to escape from networks ready to exploit them."
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