Press conference: Horrific conditions in Libyan detention centres

What:

Dr Joanne Liu, International President of Médecines Sans Frontières, describes horrific conditions inside Libyan detention centres and challenges the complicity of European States

When: Thursday, September 7th 2017, 11:00 am

Where: Résidence Palace – International Press Center, 155, rue de la Loi – Blok C, 1040 Brussels

Who: 

• Dr Joanne Liu, International President of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
• Arjan Hehenkamp,General Director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
• Jan-Peter Stellema,Operational Advisor of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Dr Joanne Liu, International President of Médecins Sans Frontières, has just returned from Libya where she visited MSF medical teams working in detention centers and witnessed firsthand the horrific situation of the migrants and refugees detained there. During her time in Tripoli, she heard harrowing accounts from detainees who have endured ill-treatment and extreme abuse, including sexual violence, forced labor and extortion.

In an open letter addressed to the European Leaders, and to be published on Thursday the 7th, Dr. Liu strongly denounces their determination to block people in Libya at all costs as well as their complicity in the suffering of thousands of men, women and children.

Topics to discussed

• European States’ complicity in a detention network which has become a thriving enterprise of kidnapping, torture and extortion.
• The need for an end to the horrific abuse endured by those detained.
• The criminalisation of those who seek to help people on the move and the continuing externalisation of European borders in an effort to ensure refugees and migrants are kept far from European shores

CONTACT:

Christof Godderis, press officer Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Brussels, Phone

+32 475 40 60 76, christof.godderis@brussels.msf.org