By Brian Rohan ALERTNEWS
BENGHAZI, Libya, Oct 17 (Reuters) – After weeks on the run, thousands of black Libyans driven from their homes during the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi have resurfaced across the country, finding refuge in a squalid camp they hope is only temporary.
Once residents of Gaddafi's stronghold of Tawergha, the families now wander a dusty compound ringed with garbage and staffed by a handful of volunteers from the city of Benghazi struggling to prevent the spread of disease as numbers swell.
The group's eastward flight began last summer, when anti-Gaddafi forces overran Tawergha and vengeance-seeking crowds ransacked it, leaving a ghost town behind.
“They chased us with guns and knives,” said Ibrahim Med Khaled, a 24-year-old taxi driver recently arrived at the former construction site after spending weeks dodging hostile crowds across the country's west before being captured by armed men.
“They brought me to a house and beat me with electrical cable to make me confess I worked for Gaddafi, even though I told them I never carried a gun,” he said, lifting his shirt to reveal shoulders criss-crossed with fresh wounds from flogging.
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NOTE BY EDITOR: The article is about Black Libyans. The situation is worse for foreigners, whether black or bronw. In all of Liby foreign nationals are rounded up by armed militias and sent to detention camps. In Benghazi the situation is not that bleak and usually the foreigners are taken directly to the Libyan Red Crescent Camp, where the International Organization for Migration will arrange for the transport to their home countries. This Organization is supposed to only transport ‘Volontary Returns’. Therefore the question to the migrants is: “Would you like to volontary return home or stay in detention?” Yes, this is of course not an ideal situation. –
I spoke to many migrants in Benghazi that were picked up on checkpoints. Most of them were treated well (taking into account local understanding of ‘well’, meaning not necessarily beaten up) They said that ‘yes, they would not mind to go home’, however, they hoped that they could pass their residence to pick up their belongings. Not only Africans are being sent home, but all foreigners without valid work permits. As the authorities were not functioning since February that means most of the foreigners, as even valid papers might be expired.
In many cases such foreigners were working, for instance one Chadian to whom I spoke was tending sheep. The expelling authorities are not consulting the employer whether his work is needed or not. The agriculture might collapse, with all workers gone. Not only ‘Black Africans’ are expelled, but also Egyptians, Bangladeshis etc. The whole thing is a bit strange. It would seem to the ‘neutral observer’ that the new Libya has other challenges than concentrating their efforts to repatriate all foreigners at this moment. Many/most of the foreigners that are being sent home are clearly not militias. The militias that pick them up know that they are working on farms etc.