DCIM guards to smugglers for money, returned to the DCIM centre for an unknown reason, and
was then handed over to another group of smugglers again for money.54 While in detention, he
witnessed guards beating his friend, a boy from Senegal aged approximately 17, because his
friend was too weak to work hard and so could not be sold for forced labour. DCIM guards
demanded that his friend call home to ask relatives to transfer money to them. His friend refused,
explaining that his family did not have enough money. The guards beat his friend with sticks,
kicked, and punched him. He was then left with the other migrants, unable to move and barely
breathing. The guards then took him and never brought him back. The boy assumed his friend
had died.
A similar account was given by a 16-year-old boy from Eritrea who was detained in Al-Fallah
DCIM detention facility. He told UNSMIL staff that guards beat him and told him to call his
family so that they would send money. A few weeks later, his family sent the money. He was
then handed over to a smuggler who took him to Sabrata. The boy was told by other detainees
that in April 2016, Al-Fallah DCIM centre guards beat a young Eritrean man to death when his
family was not able to send him any money.
6.3.
Forced labour
The overwhelming majority of migrants interviewed, including those who paid smugglers in
other countries, described experiences in Libya of being forced to work in farms, as domestic
workers, construction and road paving workers, and rubbish collectors. Those who were forced
to work said that they did not receive payment. Others in detention centres were forced to work
in order to save enough funds to buy their way out of detention. After working during the day,
some are taken back to the detention centres in the evenings; others are held at the workplace for
weeks or months at a time. In some cases, employers gave money to smugglers, traffickers, or
DCIM guards as payment for the work. Working conditions were often unbearable, with little or
no protection against the elements in winter or summer. Employers often provided inadequate
food and unpotable water. As a result, the health conditions of these workers deteriorate rapidly.
Migrants also recounted that in order to force them to work, employers, smugglers, traffickers
and DCIM staff often threatened to kill them, beat them with sticks, metal bars and gun butts, or
shot at them. Survivors also witnessed the killing of friends who were unable to work or had
attempted to escape.
A 16-year old boy from Senegal told UNSMIL staff that he was held in a warehouse for a month
in Sabha, in southern Libya, with another 80 migrants, including 42 women and children from
Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. He had been looking for a job in Sabha when armed men, some in
54
UNSMIL understands that smugglers are prepared to pay DCIM or others in order to take back migrants since
they only receive full payment from intermediaries once the migrant arrives in Europe.
18
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