payment to the food catering providers led to food distribution being suspended, sometimes for days, or to the quantity and quality of the food being reduced. Access to medical care is generally limited to that provided by international organizations, some of which operate through local implementing partners, and is grossly inadequate in light of the needs. Local hospitals require payment to treat foreign nationals and UNSMIL has received reports that some have refused to treat migrants, citing a lack of payment and fear of infectious diseases. In general, the health system in Libya is close to collapse and faces severe challenges as a result of infrastructural damage, lack of medicines, medical equipment, and personnel.53 Many of the migrants that UNSMIL staff interviewed in Italy were reluctant to talk about their experience in Libya. As one explained: “We don’t want to remember it, we turned the page of Libya”. A 28-year-old migrant from Cameroon told UNSMIL staff that at the end of 2015 he was detained twice in the Al-Zawiya DCIM detention center. He described detention conditions as very crowded, dark, and lacking ventilation. He and the other migrants were usually forbidden to leave their cells. When the guards did allow them to leave, the guards spat on their faces, humiliated them, and beat them. He said the guards forced them to stand still in the sun and punished them if they moved. A 17-year-old orphan migrant from Guinea said that while he was in Libya in early 2016, he was detained in Al-Qatrun DCIM detention center for three weeks. He said he was beaten and humiliated, but managed to escape when officials forced him to work on a farm. A 16 year-old boy from Eritrea told UNSMIL staff that he had travelled through Sudan and Libya to Italy, arriving at Pozallo, Sicily on 28 June 2016. He spent a month and a half in Libya, mostly in a detention facility in Tripoli, after being caught by armed and uniformed men. He could not identify the detention facility where he was held, but described his experience. He was held in a metal hangar with approximately 200 men, women and children who were mainly from Somalia and Eritrea. There were no windows and very little ventilation. There was only one toilet, forcing those detained to use bottles for urination. The odor was overwhelming, and many detainees were ill. Some had scabies and others had breathing problems. They were given very little food. He said, “we black-skinned Africans, we are called animals and are treated as animals.” On 29 November, the bodies of 28 migrants were buried in the city of Bani Walid. The bodies were found in the area and the victims appeared to have died from malnutrition. Reports received 53 80 percent of healthcare workforce, mainly foreign workers, has fled the country; over 60 percent of health facilities have been closed or work on reduced capacity due to infrastructural damage, lack of medicines, medical equipment and medical personnel. This leaves nearly 2 million people (one-third of the population) in need of assistance to access life-saving health services. Humanitarian Bulletin Libya, Issue 08, October 2016, available at https://unsmil.unmissions.org/Portals/unsmil/Documents/Humanitarian%20Bulletin%20Libya%20Issue%208_Oc tober%202016_EN.pdf 16

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