Is migration the reason for the reluctancy to be unequivocal for governments to say what the ‘real situation’ in Libya is?

Refugees and migrants in Tripoli’s Qasr Bin Gashir detention center were shot and injured during a violent incident this week, the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today, reiterating its call for an evacuation of migrants and refugees detainedin the war-torn country.

MSF and other humanitarian agencies warned weeks ago of the dangers for about 3,000 migrants and refugees in detention centers in Tripoli and the surrounding area, and this incident could have been entirely prevented with their urgent and immediate evacuation out of country, the organization said.

“The international community can only be blamed for its complete and utter inaction,” said Karline Kleijer, MSF’s head of emergency programs. “Today MSF is again pleading for their urgent and immediate evacuation out of the country. Until then they remain at risk of another attack or crossfire.”

The attack on Tuesday, which human rights groups say may constitute a war crime, took place after more than 700 men, women and children had spent weeks in the middle of clashes between forces aligned with the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by renegade general Khalifa Haftar and the UN-backed government in Tripoli.

Witnesses said fighters wearing uniforms, which showed they were aligned with the Libyan National Army, drove up to the Qasr bin Ghashir centre, which is run by a militia aligned to the LNA.

An Eritrean man, who was present, said many of the 728 detainees were praying. He said the attackers told the detainees to stop praying, but many people didn’t hear them. “After a few minutes [they] started shooting.”

CD – Irish Times