Libya’s Attorney-General Siddiq Al-Sour denied that migrants were killed by security forces in Tripoli during an anti-migrant crackdown earlier this month and claimed that such reports are “false” , according to a statement released yesterday by the attorney-general’s office.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a U.N. agency, reported on October 9 that six African migrants were shot dead by Libyan guards in a detention centre in the capital.
The shooting took place in the Al-Mabani detention centre where some 3,000 migrants are being held, IOM official Federico Soda told AFP at that time. “Six migrants in total were killed by the guards,” he said.
The U.N. Human Rights Office reported on October 13 that security forces in Tripoli used “unnecessary and disproportionate” force to detain migrants, shooting dead some of those trying to escape.
“Migrants and asylum seekers, some of whose claims are pending, have been targeted by heavy-handed operations by Libyan security forces,” the U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Marta Hurtado said during a briefing in Geneva.
However, Al-Sour told Jean-Paul Cavalieri, Chief of Mission of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Libya, on Friday that those reports are “false” and called for “strengthening means of communication” between his office and the U.N. agencies to “ensure accuracy” of reports on migrants.
Libyan guards shoot six migrants dead at Tripoli detention center
Li