A UN-run facility in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, has been accused of not providing enough food to the refugees. A group of about 400 people who had come from the Abu Salim Detention Centre in the south of the country are being starved.
When the facility opened, it received a great reception from the survivors. Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told The Guardian, “The opening of this centre in very difficult circumstances has the potential to save lives. It offers immediate protection and safety of vulnerable refugees in need of urgent evacuation, and is an alternative to detention for hundreds of refugees currently trapped in Libya.”
The refugees are currently surviving on the food which some of them managed to get from another part of the centre. They had allegedly last received food around a couple of weeks ago. This was all mentioned in an assessment made by the International Organization of Migration, which also stated that out of the 400 people, around 100 of them are minors.
The UNHCR is also planning to withdraw food from 600 other refugee and detention centres. It also added that the agency will “phase out” food catering in these centres by December. 31. It would still continue to finance cleaning in the centres. Healthcare centres will also not cease to continue.
“They are starving the population inside the facility. They are just trying to starve them to motivate them to leave. It is deliberately withholding aid to put people under pressure,” an aid worker said. There were hundreds of survivors who had protested against the lack of aid being provided to them.
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