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	Libya: New evidence shows refugees and migrants trapped in horrific cycle of abuses by OHCHR, Amnesty International, agencies   Sep. 2020   Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants in Libya are trapped in a vicious cycle of cruelty with little to no hope of finding safe and legal pathways out, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.   After enduring unconscionable suffering in Libya, refugees and migrants risk their lives at sea seeking safety in Europe, only to be intercepted, transferred back to Libya and delivered to the same abuses they sought to escape.   This comes a day after the European Commission announced its new ‘Migration Pact’, a major pillar of which is even stronger cooperation with countries outside the EU to control migration flows.   The report ‘Between life and death’: Refugees and migrants trapped in Libya’s cycle of abuse documents the harrowing accounts of refugees and migrants who have suffered or witnessed a litany of abuses in Libya including unlawful killings; enforced disappearances; torture and other ill-treatment; rape and other sexual violence; arbitrary detention; and forced labour and exploitation at the hands of state and non-state actors in a climate of near-total impunity.   The report also details more recent developments, including the transfer of people disembarked in Libya to unofficial places of detention – such as Tripoli’s notorious Tobacco Factory – and the summary deportation of thousands of refugees and migrants from Libya’s eastern regions.   “Libya, a country torn apart by years of war, has become an even more hostile environment for refugees and migrants seeking a better life. Instead of being protected, they are met with a catalogue of appalling human rights abuses and now unfairly blamed for the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on deeply racist and xenophobic grounds. Despite this, even in 2020 the EU and its member states continue to implement policies trapping tens of thousands of men, women and children in a vicious cycle of abuse, showing a callous disregard for people’s lives and dignity,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.   “Given the Libyan authorities’ consistent failure to address long-standing patterns of abuse against refugees and migrants, including by state officials and affiliated militias, the EU and its member states must completely reconsider their co-operation with Libyan authorities, making any further support conditional on immediate action to stop horrific abuses against refugees and migrants.   This would include ending arbitrary detention and closing immigration detention centres. Until then, anyone rescued or intercepted in the central Mediterranean should not be returned to Libya, but instead be allowed to disembark in a place of safety.”   Since 2016, European Union (EU) member states, led by Italy, have been collaborating with the Libyan authorities – providing speedboats, training and assistance in the co-ordination of operations at sea – to ensure people attempting to flee the country by boat are intercepted at sea and brought back to Libya. During this period, an estimated 60,000 men, women and children have been captured at sea and disembarked in Libya by the EU-supported Libyan Coast Guard (LCG), 8,435 of them between 1 January and 14 September 2020 alone.   Driven by a desire to stop arrivals at all costs, EU states have offered their support to Libya – in an effort to circumvent international laws prohibiting pushbacks – without conditioning it upon strict human rights guarantees.   Refugees and migrants intercepted at sea by the LCG are brought back to Libya, where they are subjected to enforced disappearances, indefinite and arbitrary detention, torture and extortion.. http://bit.ly/3jhlFRK   http://www.icrc.org/en/document/libya-covid-19-and-conflict-collide-libya-deepening-humanitarian-crisis   Sep. 2020   Stranded migrants need safe and dignified return – UN Migrant Workers Committee   The UN Committee on Migrant Workers has called on governments to take immediate action to address the inhumane conditions of migrant workers who are stranded in detention camps and ensure they can have an orderly, safe and dignified return to their home countries.   “Migrants, mostly from African and South Asian countries, are regularly scapegoated for the spread of the coronavirus. There are reports of ill-treatment and even torture every single day in detention camps, with allegations that inmates do not receive medical treatment. Some are even left to die,” the independent experts of the Committee said.   The Committee raised deep concerns over the situation of migrant workers, especially those detained in Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and in North African countries such as Libya.   Major media reported in early September that thousands of African migrant workers are locked in cramped and unhygienic camps in Saudi Arabia. Video images showing detained migrant workers sleeping and eating in facilities with raw sewage spilling across the floor are evidence of the shocking conditions that require immediate action from international community, the Committee stressed.   “The COVID-19 pandemic is currently wreaking havoc all over the world. In many countries, the death toll is rising, health systems are under challenge, and unemployment rates are unprecedentedly high. While Governments try their utmost to control the most significant health disaster since 1918, they have to be aware of the fact that this pandemic makes migrant workers who have no access to clean water, sanity and health care far more vulnerable than local residents,” the Committee said.   As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the Committee stressed: “It is more important than ever that human rights violations perpetrated against migrants must immediately stop.”   The Committee recalls the Joint Guidance Note on the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Human Rights of Migrants. “We urge the Governments of host and transit countries to strictly protect the human rights of all migrants and to cooperate without delay with the countries of origin to ensure an orderly, safe and dignified return of stranded migrants into their home countries.” http://bit.ly/2St6GrZ Visit the related web page
	Covid-19 has exposed the negative impact of privatising vital public services by UN special rapporteurs Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, agencies   Global markets have failed to provide people with basic needs like housing and water, say present and former UN special rapporteurs - Leilani Farha, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Koumbou Boly Barry, Leo Heller, Olivier De Schutter, Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona.   The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the catastrophic fallout of decades of global privatisation and market competition.   When the pandemic hit, we saw hospitals being overwhelmed, caregivers forced to work with virtually no protective equipment, nursing homes turned into morgues, long queues to access tests, and schools struggling to connect with children confined to their homes.   People were being urged to stay at home when many had no decent roof over their heads, no access to water and sanitation, and no social protection.   For many years, vital public goods and services have been steadily outsourced to private companies. This has often resulted in inefficiency, corruption, dwindling quality, increasing costs and subsequent household debt, further marginalising poorer people and undermining the social value of basic needs like housing and water. We need a radical change in direction.   There was a glimmer of hope when people seemed to recognise the crucial centrality of public services to the functioning of society. As French president Emmanuel Macron put it on 12 March, the pandemic had revealed that there are goods and services that must be placed outside the laws of the market.   Take water, a commodity all the more vital as washing your hands is one of the best ways to protect yourself from the virus. About 4 billion people worldwide experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year.   In the Chilean Petorca province, for example, one avocado tree uses more water than the daily quota allocated to each resident. Despite increasing daily water allocation to residents, the ministry of health revoked this decision just eight days later – an indication of how authorities continue to put the interests of private companies above the rights of their people.   And what about the long-awaited vaccine? Recognising that we cannot rely on market forces, more than 140 world leaders and experts have called on governments and international institutions to guarantee that Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines are made available to all, without charge. But the reality is that pharmaceutical companies around the world are competing to sell the first vaccine.   The global mantra to practise physical distancing to avoid spreading the coronavirus is meaningless for the 1.6 billion people living in grossly inadequate housing, let alone the 2% of the world’s population who are homeless. Yet most governments seem unwilling to step back into the housing arena to regulate the financial organisations that have helped create these conditions.   The financialisation of housing by these actors has for years resulted in higher rents, evicting low-income tenants, failing to properly maintain housing in good repair and hoarding empty units in order to increase their profits.   By continuing to opt for contracting out public goods and services, governments are paying lip service to their human rights obligations. Rights holders are transformed into the clients of private companies dedicated to profit maximisation and accountable not to the public but to shareholders.   This affects the core of our democracies, contributes to exploding inequalities and generates unsustainable social segregation.   We are six UN independent experts from many different backgrounds, current and former special rapporteurs on a range of economic, social and cultural rights. It is in this capacity that, together, we want to share this message: if human rights are to be taken seriously, the old construct of states taking a back seat to private companies must be abandoned.   New alternatives are necessary. It is time to say it loud and clear: the commodification of health, education, housing, water, sanitation and other rights-related resources and services prices out the poor and may result in violations of human rights.   States can no longer cede control as they have done. They are not absolved of their human rights obligations by delegating core goods and services to private companies and the market on terms that they know will effectively undermine the rights and livelihoods of many people.   It is equally crucial that multilateral organisations, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, stop imposing financialised models and the privatisation of public services on countries.   This is also a pivotal moment for the human rights community. We call on all those committed to human rights to address the consequences of privatisation head on. Human rights can help articulate the public goods and services we want – participatory, transparent, sustainable, accountable, non-discriminatory and serving the common good.   We are in a state of emergency. This is probably the first of a series of larger crises awaiting us, driven by the growing climate emergency. The Covid-19 crisis is expected to push another 176 million people into poverty. Each of them may see their human rights violated unless there is a drastic change of model and investment in quality public services.   * Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky is the former UN independent expert on foreign debt and human rights; Koumbou Boly Barry is UN special rapporteur on the right to education; Olivier De Schutter is UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; and former UN special rapporteur on the right to food; Leilani Farha is the former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; Leo Heller is UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona is the former UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. http://bit.ly/3mGu8iR   http://www.gi-escr.org/publications/states-human-rights-obligations-regarding-public-services-the-united-nations-normative-framework http://www.gi-escr.org/latest-news/gi-escr-and-the-center-for-economic-and-social-rights-publish-new-briefing-paper-on-public-services http://www.cesr.org/envisioning-rights-based-economy-new-report-cesr-and-christian-aid Visit the related web page
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