Nothing is known about the 10 Bangladeshis and the six Egyptians who were deported by Italy to Albania on Wednesday, despite the fact that they have dominated the news for a week, and have opened the EU’s first internment camp outside its borders. There were only images of them from afar, when they got off the ship that took them, and when they boarded the one that took them to Italy on Saturday. Morning Express has been able to reconstruct some of their stories, through the testimonies of five people who spoke with them, in the Italian parliamentary delegation that visited them in the center of Gjadër. They are hard stories and extreme brutality. “The worst thing is Libya, that’s what everyone says, they describe it as hell,” summarizes one of these interlocutors. They all set sail from this African country.
Many Bangladeshis end up in Libya, by plane, through Dubai, looking for work, with false promises of the future, or it is the fate of those who flee for some reason. One of the migrants said that he did it because he had defended his father in a fight over land, when he was being beaten, and the other person reported him for homicide, according to him unfairly. They were going to arrest him and he decided to escape. Another left because his brother, in a political conflict, killed a man and fled to hide, according to what he said. She then ordered him to kill another person himself, but he refused. Then he threatened him and he ended up leaving the country. A third claimed that he was from a Hindu minority, harassed where he lived, with the destruction of temples and statues, and he suffered death threats. A fourth were desperate because they could not support their family and had many sick relatives, with medical expenses. As a last resort, he decided to emigrate to try to send them money. “He said that if he returned to his country he would commit suicide,” summarizes one of those who interviewed him.
A fifth person was not running away from anything, and said that the truth is that he did not want to go to Italy. But he says he traveled to Libya tricked into working, with a loan with very high interest that he was never able to pay back, he worked for free just to pay it back. He only thought about fleeing Libya no matter what, although by escaping he left his debt pending, and he cannot return there or they would kill him.
The situation in Libya is very dangerous, as human rights organizations have denounced on numerous occasions, and thousands of migrants from other countries who want to embark for Italy end up in the hands of local mafias, enslaved. There are also criminal groups of Bangladeshis who exploit their own compatriots. All those deported to Albania claim that they fell into the power of mafias. “It is very common, they kidnap them, lock them in a room and ask their family for a ransom,” says the person who spoke with them. One of these Bangladeshis says that he was kidnapped while getting into a taxi. The taxi driver himself sold it to a criminal group. He spent four months in a room, locked up with other people. Several of them report that they were in the dark, with their hands tied, and they were not given food or drink for days.
Recorded tortures
Families go into debt, mortgage the house, do whatever it takes to save them. If the required money does not arrive, the captors torture their victims. Bangladeshis in Gjadër have reported beatings with sticks, sometimes tied hands and feet, or hanging upside down, and sometimes with electric shocks applied with a cable. They also pulled out their nails. These scenes are often recorded to send the video to their families, and pressure them to send money. Still, the risk is that when they are released, they will actually be sold to another mafia group, or fall into the hands of another within a matter of days. Sometimes they find work, but often they are enslaved, unpaid, or only meager salaries.
Among the Egyptian deportees, those who have visited them cite the case of a deserter, a young man who was stopped on the street at a checkpoint and taken to do military service, lasting three years. Then he fled to Libya, worked unpaid in the fields and in construction, enslaved, with frequent beatings. He showed a scar on the bridge of his nose, broken by a blow from kalashnikovof his guards. In total, between the trip to Libya, his release and the ticket to Italy, the equivalent of 8,500 euros was spent. Another Egyptian says that he fled because he was in danger of being murdered: his uncle had killed a man, and since he had no children, the revenge of the deceased’s family had to fall on him, according to the local customs that he described. He said that if they repatriated him to Egypt, they would kill him.
“In the end these people want to leave Libya no matter what, but they cannot return to their country, also because the mafias have taken away their passports. They have the sea and Italy left. They are always between life and death. They can die at sea, but at least there is hope,” explains this interlocutor. Embarking to Italy can cost between 4,000 and 5,000 euros. Added to what they have spent to get to Libya, and the ransoms they have had to pay.
On the journey to Italy, some deportees who were in the same boat say that after a while they ran out of gas and were adrift. After a few hours, a drone appeared in the sky, which they interpreted as a sign of salvation. They had located them. Later an Italian ship arrived and rescued them. Something that all the Gjadër deportees said in their conversations was to thank Italy for having saved them. Just being able to shower, have a coffee and smoke a cigarette was the first moment of calm in months. Some spent up to nine months, a year or two years in Libya. “One of them said: ‘Now I can’t return to my country, my life is in danger. In Italy I could be free.’” They are already in Italy.