uniform and some in civilian clothes, forcibly took him to the warehouse. He described the conditions as inhuman, and explained that there was very little food or potable water. He observed the guards beating people, in particular those who refused or were too weak to work. He said: “... At night, some armed men come and take away women and 13-year old girls. They bring them back either a few hours later or on the following day. The women and the very young girls are raped, and if they resist, they are beaten and threatened with guns.” He recounted that guards took his 16-year-old Senegalese friend to work on a construction site outside. However, in a few days his friend became weak and sick and could not work and so was brought back to the detention centre. An armed guard came and asked his friend to stand up, but he could not. He was lying on the ground. The guard struck his chest with his feet. His friend was crying and begged the guard to leave him alone. A few minutes later, he could neither move nor talk. Then the guard left. The boy said that his friend later died. A few hours later, the guards asked the migrants to take his friend’s body to the courtyard. He did not know what happened to his friend’s body. He said: “They treated us like animals. This is what they call us, ‘animals’… for our captors it does not matter if we die.” Another migrant from Gambia told UNSMIL staff that while he was traveling by road in southern Libya, smugglers forced a group of 23 migrants to work on a farm for three weeks. When one of the migrants attempted to escape because of the ill-treatment and harsh conditions of work, armed men shot him in the leg. He was sent to a hospital in Sabha and survived. He was left at the hospital with no documents, money, or clothes. With the support of a smuggler, he stayed in the hospital for ten days and then left for Sabrata. In September 2016, UNSMIL received reports that migrants from the Tajura detention centre which is managed by the Passport Investigation Department were forced to collect the bodies of migrants that had washed up on the beach, presumably after drowning during their attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea. 6.4. Violations related to interception at sea The boats on which migrants sail are usually unseaworthy, lack standard life-saving equipment, and do not have sufficient fuel to reach European shores. During 2016, inflatable dinghies were the most common types of boats used. They are more prone to sinking or capsizing than wooden boats which are usually old fishing trawlers. Smuggled migrants - who are usually unskilled in crewing boats - are instructed to manoeuver the boats, which usually carry communication equipment such as a satellite phones to dispatch distress calls directly to rescue centres. When migrant boats have been intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard, migrants are typically transferred to DCIM detention facilities or to private houses and farms, sometimes for a fee, where they are often subjected to forced labour and, in the case of women, rape and other sexual 19