Migrants stranded at a Libyan detention center in hellish conditions

Migrants at a Libyan detention center are stranded without food and live under unhygienic conditions.

Ahmed Saleh Ibrahim, 19, is from Kassala in eastern Sudan. He is among those in the only migrant detention center in Sabha, the largest city in Libya’s south.

He’s been living in this hellish condition for four months.

There's little food, and at night there are a lot of mosquitoes, and the place is dirty.

“There is a shortage of cleaning materials and food too, there’s little food, and at night there are a lot of mosquitoes, and the place is dirty, and the bathrooms are also unclean”, Ibrahim said.

The detention center in Sabha is located on the entrance to the city of Sabha. The center which now houses 45 migrants, is not full as many have been deported. Those left do not want to return for fear of living in conflict.

Mohammed Jibril is the Deputy Director of Sabha Detention Center.

“The center needs a lot of things, including water supply, (to) provide drinking water supply, provide electric generators, it needs maintenance, it needs a clinic. The center needs an ambulance, of course, to transport patients, and the centre also needs maintenance in the inside, the offices, the bathrooms, all of it”, Jibril said.

Jibril believes they can offer better services to migrants living there if they could be given these basic amenities.

But for now, there are signs of breakthrough in the living conditions faced by the migrants in Sabha.

AP