torture

Many people are still trapped in captivity and suffering abuses in Libya a year after Italy struck an EU-backed deal with the government to stop irregular migrants. Migrants who have managed to escape Libya following the deal have told Oxfam and its partner Borderline Sicilia of on-going kidnapping, murder, rape and forced labor.

EU measures to block migrants in Libya leave people in danger, Oxfam says in reaction to the decisions of EU leaders at their summit in Brussels today.

Rape, torture and slave labor are among the horrendous daily realities for people stuck in Libya who are desperately trying to escape war, persecution and poverty in African countries, according to a new report by Oxfam and Italian partners MEDU and Borderline Sicilia.

While EU governments are meeting in Tallinn today to approve plans for more cooperation with Libya in order to stop people from entering Europe, Oxfam and its partners are hearing new accounts of murder, torture and other horrific abuses being suffered by refugees and other people who have fled through Libya - a place they call “hell”.

Ordinary Afghans blame government weakness and corruption as the second most important factor behind the fighting, with the Taliban coming third, followed by interference by neighboring countries.

Since the start of military operations in January, more than 600 civilians have been killed and thousands of women and girls raped by armed rebel groups and government forces.

Rape, forced labor, reprisal attacks and torture are surging in eastern Congo as the result of the recent UN-backed military offensive, according to a new in-depth survey of nearly 600 villagers carried out by international aid agency Oxfam.