Sudanese in Libya: Fleeing from Death to ``Cruelty``
Source: Alhurra website
On an April night in 2023, while the sound of shells was tearing apart the silence of the city of El Fasher, North Darfur, Tamadur Al-Nour Al-Bakr embraced her children. She has three children, and she hugged them together, trying to calm the tremors of fear in her heart. Al-Bakr told Al-Hurra website: "The war is merciless, and hunger is threatening their lives."
Her husband, who stayed with her throughout the displacement period, tried to find any way out of Sudan, after their situation became difficult and El Fasher became a battlefield, unfit for living. They had no choice but to flee. They collected what little money they had left, and prepared for a risky journey to Libya, where they were told: There is an opportunity for a safer life.
The war in Sudan began in mid-April 2023, as a result of a conflict between the armed forces led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed Hemeti. The dispute dates back to an old rivalry between the two institutions over power and influence, and the dispute worsened after the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
The war left behind humanitarian consequences that international reports describe as “catastrophic,” with thousands of civilian casualties and millions forced to flee internally and externally.
The Escape to Kufra
In an old truck packed with fugitives, Tamadur, her husband and their children set off across the Sahara Desert in August of the same year. The heat was unbearable, water was scarce, and fear of bandits and militias gnawed at their hearts. Whenever the eldest felt hopeless, she looked into her children’s eyes and drew strength from them, while her husband held her hand to reassure her that “this ordeal will pass.”
After days of suffering, they arrived in the Libyan city of Kufra, the main entry point from Sudan, 350 kilometers from the nearest Sudanese border point.
During 2024, the number of Sudanese refugees seeking safety in Libya doubled, with an estimated 400 arriving each day, according to the UNHCR.
The al-Bakr family soon discovered that Kufra was teeming with smugglers and armed men, and that Sudanese refugees were treated harshly. They could barely find a place to stay. They slept in a small warehouse shared with a group of families who had also fled elsewhere.
In the morning, they and others, with the help of a smuggler, began moving toward the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where armed men stopped them at several checkpoints. “They would drop us off and humiliate us, especially at the Ajdabiya gate in eastern Libya, and demand extra money to pass,” al-Bakr said. They paid the equivalent of 100 at these checkpoints until they reached Tripoli in the west.
First detention
According to al-Bakr, the family and the convoy reached the UNHCR headquarters. They barely registered their names, and each family was given 500 dinars (about 101). “This amount is not enough for one month’s rent, so we used it for food and drink,” said Al-Bakr.
There was no place for her family to stay, so they slept in front of the UNHCR with dozens of other Sudanese. It wasn’t long before Libyan security forces raided the area after it was overcrowded with migrants. Dozens of refugees were arrested, including Al-Bakr, her husband and their children aged seven, eight and 12.
The family was taken with dozens of other families to Abu Salim prison. “They forced me and my husband to take off all our clothes, even the little children, under the pretext of searching them, and when we argued with them they beat us. I have marks on my body from their beatings,” said Al-Bakr.
The nights in prison were slow and filled with fear. Al-Bakr saw security forces beating some of the detainees, and heard the screams of women being interrogated in humiliating ways. She tried to stay strong for her children, who were crying from hunger and cold.
In prison, a Sudanese woman accompanied them with her seven children, the eldest of whom was an 18-year-old girl. The woman was suffering from diabetes and was unable to eat the food they were given, which was bread or rice. She now lives with Al-Bakr and her family. She is very ill because of what happened to her in prison.
After 30 days of detention and suffering, they were released after the UNHCR intervened and gave them 900 dinars (about 190 US dollars) to find shelter. The family joined other Sudanese families to rent a three-room house, each with seven people.
“It’s better than sleeping on the street and being arrested again,” Al-Bakr said.
Her husband tried to find permanent work, but he couldn’t. The reason was that they didn’t have passports. They hadn’t been in the rented house for more than a month before security forces came and arrested them again. The arrests were based on a complaint from neighbors who said that “there were a lot of Sudanese in the house.”
This time was worse than the first, as the security forces forced her to take off her clothes even though she was menstruating. Attempts to beg them to stop these humiliating procedures, which were accompanied by sexual harassment, were unsuccessful, she said. Inside the detention center, there was almost no food. The children were sick and had no medical care. After six days, the Sudanese embassy called and mediated to get them out of prison.
Al-Bakr and her family cannot return to El Fasher, where the war continues, and her father was killed there in a shelling by the Rapid Support Forces four months ago.
Huge difficulties
While it is estimated that more than 210,000 Sudanese have arrived in Libya since the start of the war, the UNHCR expects the number to reach 450,000 by the end of this year.
“Refugees in Libya have endured enormous hardships on their journey here. As we enter a new year, we must act quickly to prevent further suffering and protect lives,” Aseer Al-Mudhain, UNHCR’s head of mission in Libya, said in late December.
Last month, Libya’s Anti-Illegal Migration Agency issued a final warning to companies across the country, demanding that they regularize the employment status of their expatriate workers.
"Exploitation"
Tareq Lamloum, a researcher on illegal immigration, said in an interview with Alhurra that "Libya is in a state of chaos regarding the treatment of irregular migrants."
"There are many announcements about the need to regularize their status, but in reality, many officials are involved in exploiting them illegally," Lamloum said. He also said that "everyone who does maintenance and cleaning work, even in prisons, is an irregular migrant. Even in ministries, these workers are the ones who hold jobs, but they are not legally registered."
Lamloum pointed out that "these migrants often find themselves victims of human trafficking, and live in harsh conditions inside detention centers, where they are financially exploited by the authorities and armed groups."
In prisons, migrants are subjected to arbitrary detention, with constant threats that they will remain in detention until they pay sums of money in exchange for their release, according to Lamloum. Some of them can only leave after paying amounts of up to 1,500 US dollars, which increases their suffering, especially in light of the deteriorating economic situation in Libya.
Added to this tragedy is the lack of humanitarian options available to alleviate their suffering, which clearly reflects the weakness of the Libyan state in dealing with the migration crisis legally and humanely.
While Al-Bakr fears leaving the house in which they sleep for fear of what might happen, a security campaign came on Saturday (February 2) and arrested her husband and a group of Sudanese who were standing in a square where workers gather in search of work. She no longer sees any way out of this nightmare that is becoming more complicated with time, especially since she sees her children growing up in front of her without enrolling in schools.
Al-Bakr has begun to dream of the day when this harsh journey ends, and they return to a safe homeland, where she is not treated like a stranger, and where her children can sleep without fear.
