Migrants and refugees disembarking
from the Geo Barents in Brindisi on Friday have reported
suffering violence and abuse in detention centres in Libya
before embarking on the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.
Two women said to be in their early 20s reportedly told doctors
who boarded the civil rescue vessel for a preliminary health
inspection prior to disembarkation that they had been subjected
to sexual violence and torture.
The group of 339 migrants and refugees rescued by the ship
operated by the French charity Doctors without Borders (Msf)
also reportedly included children with heart conditions and
people with scabies.
"We know there was torture by burning and the use of electric
shock," said Msf personnel in the southern Puglia port.
Six people were taken to hospital after disembarkation, but
their condition is not said to be serious.
Sébastien Ponsford, Msf humanitarian affairs officer onboard the
Geo Barents said that one Syrian family had tried unsuccessfully
four times to reach Europe by sea and that on each occasion they
had been returned to detention in Libya.
The adults were subjected to torture and the children to
psychological violence, Ponsford said.
The arrivals, from Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Somalia
and Sri Lanka, are part of a larger group of 440 people rescued
by the Geo Barents in a 12-hour operation on Tuesday after their
fishing boat ran into difficulty in heavy seas in the Maltese
search and rescue area.
The situation had been flagged by the Alarm Phone hotline for
migrants and refugees in distress in the Mediterranean on
Monday.
100 migrants and refugees were subsequently transferred onto a
Coast Guard vessel off the coast of Sicily and one person was
medically evacuated.
The migrants and refugees will be transferred to reception
facilities in Puglia, Lombardy, Veneto, Piemonte and Emilia
Romagna.
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