Whistleblower alleges corruption, mismanagement and incompetence by Libya’s UNHCR
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Libya’s United Nations Refugee Agency has been branded “the worst in the region” by a former staff member who has alleged corruption, mismanagement and incompetence in its dealings with tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers.
The former staff member, who spoke to Euronews on condition of anonymity, painted an image of an agency overstretched and out of its depth, with asylum seekers left homeless, deprived of medical care and in legal limbo in an increasingly violent and unstable Libya.
Euronews reports that migrants and refugees on the ground said how they had even bribed their way into Libya’s notorious detention centres in an effort to speed up their asylum claims. There, they face exploitation at the hands of militia groups, which run the centres in all but name.
“The former staff member described a chaotic infrastructure at UNHCR, where he worked for several years, with asylum seekers registered under incorrect nationalities and others forced to wait for months to hear the status of their applications.”
A medical source in Tripoli said that the hospitalisation of migrants and refugees – especially those cases with tuberculosis – is expensive, and some public hospitals lack the equipment to correctly diagnose the cases.
As a result, NGOs have to find a balance between paying very high bills to private hospitals or discharging patients too early, the source concludes.
The feeling on the streets is one of abandonment by international institutions. Asylum seekers in urban areas believe that the UN agency will be there to help them find accommodation for example but the UNHCR are not obligated to do so.
In one case, a group of Sudanese refugees – including expectant mothers and newborn babies – have been living for several months in an abandoned warehouse in an area of Tripoli known as al-Riyadiya.
The group were since evicted from the warehouse and are now sleeping in front the UNHCR community day centre, waiting to be moved to safer housing.
