International

Rescued refugee says he’d rather die at sea than remain in Libya

Published

8 years ago

July 29, 2016

A rescued refugee Endalkachew Gebrehiwot who spent 10 months in Libya has revealed that he’d rather die at sea than return to the war torn North African country.

Speaking to Aljazeera, the migrant who was rescued at sea said refugees in Libya were subject kidnapping, torture and rape.

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He said was kidnapped twice in Libya by people smugglers and because he was unable to to pay a $4,500 ransom, he said the smugglers forced him to work and whipped him every day with electrical wires.

“It is the will of God, that I survived. You don’t expect to survive that concentration camp,” he said.

Kim Clausen, from the Doctors Without Borders organisation, described the conditions in Libya as “horrible”.

“Right now, going on in Libya, it’s what we’d call slave trading, it’s forced prostitution, mass rapes. It’s torture. It’s kidnapping for ransom by the smugglers and they sell the refugees.”

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