THE TORTURE FACTORY – report | Medici per i Diritti Umani

THE TORTURE FACTORY – report

Report on Human Rights Violations Against Migrants and Refugees in Libya (2014-2020)

fabbrica paura

©UNICEF/UN052682/Romenzi

These terrible things are happening now.
You have to go to prisons in Libya
to go and free who is inside!
F., 24 years old from Sudan, February 2020

Rome, 16 March 2020 – Around 660 thousand migrants and refugees have landed in Italy since 2014. About 90% of them have spent weeks, months or years in Libya, coming mainly from the countries of West Africa or the Horn of Africa. The report The Torture Factory is based on over three thousand direct testimonies of migrants and refugees who have passed through Libya. The stories were collected by the operators of Doctors for Human Rights (Medici per i Diritti Umani – MEDU) over six years from 2014 to 2020.
The report analyses the period from 2014 to today from three points of view: 1) the migratory flows arriving in Italy from the Libyan coasts; 2) the system of abuse and exploitation that takes place in Libya against migrants and refugees; 3) the psycho-physical consequences of the violence suffered. Two phases are also compared: the three years preceding the Italy-Libya deal on migrants (February 2014- January 2017) and the three years following the same agreement (February 2017-January 2020).
The stories of the survivors describe with dramatic precision the places, the perpetrators and the methods of violence that are systematically committed in Libyan territory, inside and outside the detention and kidnapping centres. They recall the serious responsibilities of Italy, the European Union and the entire international community and represent a formidable act of accusation on the tragedy that has been taking place in recent years on the migratory routes that lead to Europe through Libya.

Read the FULL REPORT
Read the CONCLUSIONS
Look at the MAP

Document type: Report,
Project: Medu Psyche’ Center, mobile clinic in florence, mobile clinic in rome, On-to, Persephone. Clinic for foreign women victims of torture and human trafficking, Sea arrivals, Un camper per i diritti/Fi, Un camper per i diritti/rm