The Algerian Ministry of Justice announced that it will be supervising a group of prison administration members in Libya, according to a statement by the ministry.
The Algerian newspaper, Echorouk reported that the Ministry will conduct a training course between 15-26 May 2022. This will be for 15 members of the Judicial Police, working in prison administration. This course comes as a part of cooperation with the United Nations Office for Narcotics and Crime.
In January, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said in a report that thousands of detainees are held illegally, and often in inhumane conditions in facilities controlled by armed groups or in secret facilities in Libya.
He added that over 12,000 detainees are held officially in 27 prisons and detention facilities across Libya, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press.
Guterres said in the report that the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) “continues to document cases of arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and other violations of international law in facilities operated by the government and other groups.”
He said the thousands of detainees who don´t appear in the official statistics provided by Libyan authorities, estimated at over 12,000, are unable to challenge the legal basis for their continued detention.
“I remain gravely concerned by the continuing violations of the human rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Libya,” Guterres added in the report.
“Female and male migrants and refugees continue to face heightened risks of rape, smuggling, harrassment, and trafficking by armed groups, transnational smugglers and traffickers. As well as officials from the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, which operates under the Ministry of Interior,” he noted.
UNSMIL has documented cases in Tripoli’s Mitiga prison facility and several detention centers run by the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration in Al-Zawiya. It stated that it received “credible information on trafficking and sexual abuse of around 30 Nigerian women and children.”
Guterres claimed that the widespread arbitrary detention of migrants and refugees continued. This included those rescued or intercepted trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, and returned to Libya by the Libyan Coast Guard.
He expressed serious concern for those “arbitrarily detained and those who remain homeless” following widespread security operations in October by Libyan authorities in which he said, “excessive and disproportionate force was used.” He said the operations targeted “more than 5,150 migrants and refugees, including at least 1,000 women and children, and left families separated and children missing.”