In this episode, YAIM members recount their experience of detention in Tariq al Sikka, one of Libya’s official detention centers, where they were held for three to four months in early 2017 following the violent raid in Gargaresh. Through their testimonies, we confront the devastating conditions inside – extreme overcrowding, lack of food, sanitation, and medical care, and the constant threat of violence – while interrogating the role of the European Union and the International Organization for Migration in sustaining this system. We examine how the EU-IOM Joint Initiative and the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding, both launched around the same time YAIM members were detained, may have shaped what happened to them, and why guards in Tariq al Sikka suddenly suspended their usual practice of extortion. Trigger warning: the following content contains references to physical violence, torture, and inhumane conditions of detention which some individuals may find distressing.
Transcript of Episode 4: Detention
Footnotes by Viola Castellano
Intro:
My name is Tijan Jerju, Fatou Cham, my name is Fatou Darboe, Fatou Bojang from Gambia, Lamin Kotta, my name is Saikou Tunkara.
Viola
I am Viola Castellano and this is Backway to Europe: Talking Borders and Migration with Gambians on the Move.
This podcast series is produced in collaboration with Gambian advocates and activists. It centers their analyses of the border regime through their direct experiences of “the backway”—the local term for the illegalized route to Europe. These experiences resonate with many who have attempted to reach Europe across West Africa and beyond.
In the next seven episodes, you’ll hear from members of Youth Against Irregular Migration (YAIM)1 , an advocacy organization founded by young Gambians who met in a Libyan detention center. The topics and discussions emerged from years of collaboration and are rooted in their advocacy work. I use my research as an anthropologist working on border externalization to provide context and put my findings in dialogue with YAIM’s reflections.
In the previous episode we retraced the main stages of the journey to Europe, and we arrived in Tripoli, Libya, where the participants of this podcast were caught by the police during a raid and brought to the prison of Mitiga in January 2017. In this episode we will discuss what happened once they were transferred to the detention center of Tariq al Sika and how it COULD BE connected to what was going on in terms of the agreements between Libya, Italy and the EU.
Please be aware that this episode contains references to violence which some individuals may find distressing.
Saikou
so from there in the morning, you know, they took us from Mitiga to Tarik al Sikka, so we were in Tarik al Sikka up to three to four months before they deported us in Gambia here
Viola
Tariq al Sikka is one of Libya’s official detention centers, run by the Department for Combating Illegal Migration, or DCIM. It began operating in 2017, and YAIM members were among the first detained there.[1]
Under Libyan law being in the country without papers can mean fines, prison with hard labor, and deportation. But in reality, most people in these centers are never formally charged or tried. They’re held indefinitely, just for being migrants, with no legal process or assessment of their needs.
Conditions inside these detention centers—both official and unofficial—are notoriously brutal. And Tariq al Sikka is no exception.
Tombong
Because the place was very small, we were many in numbers, we had a larger number, like so for us our small prison, the way we are. The small room is a woman part, you know, but like 400
people are in that prison, you know, so people will fight, you know, just to have a place to sleep, so some people will stand and wait if the other sleep for some hours, you know, and gives chance to others also can sleep for an hour.
There are only three toilets there, so that cannot serve everyone there, so you will see some of the people, they will be there, they will not have access to the toilet, you know, and also the Arab people, they did not give us that chance to use the toilet that much
Viola
Just to be clear, as you heard in the previous episode, when talking about arab people, Saikou and the others refer to Libyans guards, smugglers or civilians
Fatou Cham
Life in prison, especially for women, is incredibly difficult. In the prison I was taken to initially, Mitiga, we were 87 in a room. There was a toilet inside, but it was overcrowded and cramped. I personally spent two nights inside the toilet, as there was no space to lie down. We could only sit, leaning our heads on our knees.
The food situation was also dire. We went two days without food after we were caught, as we hadn’t eaten the day we were captured, nor the following day. When food was finally served, it was like leftovers, and it was the first time I’d seen such food. We had to wait until the next morning for breakfast, which was the first real meal we had. After that, we had no choice but to eat whatever was available, even though it wasn’t much. We even started fasting, as food was so scarce. When food was available, we would use it to break our fast, as it felt better than enduring hunger and thirst.
We endured these harsh conditions until we were eventually scattered. Some were sent to other rooms, but we were taken to a room the size of a small toilet. This room also had a toilet inside but was too small for seven of us. Again, we couldn’t lie down; we had to sit with our legs bent, leaning against the wall. We spent almost three months in that room before being transferred to the detention center.
The transfer to the detention center was brutal. We were treated like animals, beaten from the room until we boarded the vehicle. However, once we arrived at the detention center, things became somewhat easier, as we were able to eat our fill. Our Gambian brothers helped us get food every day when it was time to collect it. We weren’t sure if they ate as well as we did, but they always made sure we had enough.
In the detention center, there was no toilet. If we needed to relieve ourselves, we had to use plastic bags, then tie them up, and throw them out of the window. This was the reality of life in Libya, and as women in the detention center, it was one of the many challenges we faced.
Viola
Since December 2015, humanitarian organizations started to have limited access to certain detention centers in Libya. Then, a year later, in December 2016[2], the EU and the International Organization for Migration, the IOM, launched a joint initiative to “provide direct assistance and enable the assisted voluntary return of migrants stranded along the migration routes.” That included things like distributing sanitary kits inside detention centers and trying to monitor the conditions people were living in.
But when you have just a couple of bathrooms for hundreds of people, handing out sanitary kits starts to feel less like real help… and more like a cruel joke.
Saikou
So they will exchange their sanitary materials to food or to cigarette, because they are not using it, you know, some of them, they will use this bucket that the IOM give it to them, so that they can wash their clothes, but they don’t have access to wash the clothes, so the only, the things that they are using for that bucket, you know, is to go to the toilet.
Tombong
Okay talking of the the support that is coming from European Union to say like, okay providing us this sanitary material, but you will see even those are provision are not utilized, we cannot
utilize those products because why, we are very tight and everything there was very strict you know and at some point if you go out you know they will there will be very much brutality on us, you know beating us, l like you know we did something that is unlawful you know.
So you can see the situation around it is so devastated you know with the migrant face so many many many challenges in the prison. And then is not only happening to the men but even you know the women’s too, you know, they face the same difficulties because you will see some women will even give birth in that prison, you know where there will be no medical attention there will be any proper like taking care of those people in that prison[3]. It is so hot and also like the time I was there I get a lot of problems in my body because of you know the congestion of the people, how people are packed together and some of the times you know you will be there you know these kind of insects[4] will be inside the prison and those insects, they always give us problems in our health wise.
Lamin Bojang
For me, when I go out even you give me only two seconds two minutes when I go out I would like to get back to the prison, because the sunlight, it shocked my eye, I will not able to see how my eye get blackout, because of the light where I sleep because I sleep on a light so that is affecting us too so in that detention center[5]. We can say that you know it is so horrible there, so we just keep patient with the system. After, when we came back, to the same thing because that problems we still face in it we still face it even right now, when you look at me my eyes having problem. Because last time I went to the hospital to check up my eye but the time they check my eye they tell me that, you know, this one is not hundred percent the right one and the left one one also is having problem because of the cost of that light so it is not easy in that prison you know.
Lamin Kotta
For them they call it the detention center. For me, if I’m there to describe that place, I will describe it like it is a prison, because for me, I never know that it is a detention center.
I’ve never seen the detention center, but I know that when you are in a detention center, you’re supposed to meet there, good beds, and maybe chairs or television, just to free up your mind before they deport you back.
But you cannot call a detention center where it is just like a big hall, because you have two places where they used to keep the boys, the months, but for the womens, we are a little bit far from the women, because it’s like a big camp. So the women are in this part, we the men are in this part. But some of them, they keep them in the big hall, where it’s a big, big, big hall. But for us, we are lucky that they keep us in one place, where that place is somehow easy a little bit. I never see a time or a day whereby, you know, people don’t get inside the toilet because we have so many people in that prison. So the toilet is 24-7, yeah. So the place there is very, very, very, very, very hard.
Even to sleep is a problem. Sometimes, you know, we sleep like, you know, if I sleep for hours and I give my friend also to come and sleep for hours, some will stand, especially when you are a new stranger, when they capture you in the beach or in the sea[6], when they bring you, you cannot have a place.
If you are a stranger, you cannot have a place to sleep. You will stand until somebody, you know, when the flight goes, then you can have a space.
Tombong
And then some, they have health complications in that prison. Instead of the authorities, they will assist or help those individual people to go and seek health care services. They will deprive them. At some point, if they know that you are about to die or the sickness is so complicated, they will just take you and rush you through it at the desert[7]. So this is the end of your life.
Fatou tried the backway twice, The first time, she used the Central Mediterranean Route and was imprisoned in Libya, first in Mitiga and then in Tariq Al Sikka, from where she was repatriated to Gambia. From there she tried again, this time using the route that passes through Algeria, but was captured by the police, detained and then deported once again in the Gambia
In her experience, the conditions in Tarqia Al Sikka were preferable to the ones she endured in Algeria, a country that does not substantially collaborate with the EU on border externalization but which still enforces its own with harsh measures[8]
Fatou Bojang
I will focus on Algeria because the conditions in Libyan prisons are easier compared to those in Algeria. In Algerian prisons, there are times when you may go two days without food. At least in Libya, you are served dinner every day. However, in the Algerian prison, it was so dark that you couldn’t even see your own hand when you lifted it.
When food arrived, the Nigerians would take all of it, leaving me with nothing. When I didn’t have food, I would start crying, and sometimes, people would give me a part of their bread. For four months, I couldn’t shower or even go outside. We stayed in complete darkness and couldn’t tell if it was day or night.
As the only Gambian in the camp, I was often isolated. There was one woman who would occasionally give me food. Sometimes, even when using the toilet, there was no water, and you had to manage without it. A bucket was placed in the corner for people to relieve themselves, and it often stayed there for days or even a week, creating a terrible odor.
Algerian prisons are very different from Libyan ones. When I became sick and the guards were informed, that’s when they opened the doors. I told them I wanted to go back to Gambia, and that’s when I was deported from Algeria to Mali. The UN workers in Mali helped me with my paperwork, and after three months, I was able to return to Gambia.
It is evident how conditions in detention centers are completely dehumanizing, more similar to concentration camps than to prisons. In this context, I wonder what the intervention of EU/IOM joint initiative stands for, if its failed attempt to improve these very conditions and the SO-called assisted voluntary returns, ends up legitimizing the existence of such places, in the name of so-called “migration management”. At the same time the obsession with preventing people from reaching Europe make migrant lives a commodity, where their need to survive and move create what scholars call bioeconomies[9], vicious circles of exploitation, guards to release migrants in the hands of traffickers in return of money or forced labour, or ask them to pay in order to be released.. But here again the EU intervenes: people need to be “voluntarily” repatriated, or better deported, from detention centers so that there is no risk they will attempt to cross the mediterranean Saihou and the others were caught and detained so that IOM could send them back to The Gambia, and they were warned of this since they were still in Mitiga prison
Saikou
When we were in Mitiga one of the of the prisoner, he was there but he was serving the prison there you know he is the one even started to tell us that you guys will not escape all of you are going back to your country, you know. So you wonder why he knows that we have this information, that before they kept us because the time the attack happened at Columbia you know, so we have this information that the European Union told them that if they keep a catch this way, let them not kill, let take us in one place, let us not kill the migrants there, so let keep us in the one place so that’s what they do when they keep us in that the one place.
Viola
There is something about what the prisoner-turned-guard told Saikou that kept bugging me. Was it true what this prisoner said, that the European Union knew about the attack at Gargaresh and that they asked the Libyan police to avoid killing people during the raid and to bring them to the detention center where they could be repatriated? Researching, I found articles in Arabic from Libyan journals documenting the crackdown on Gargaresh of the 17th of January as motivated by the illegal businesses as prostitution and drug dealing that were taking place there, something Lamin mentioned in the previous episode[10]. In the articles it is stated that the Deterrence Force opened fire on the migrants as some of them used light weapons to defend themselves and some people were killed, When such kinds of raids are carried out, people that are captured should be brought not to detention centers, but in general prisons, like Mitiga. But once there, as Lamin and the others explained in the previous episode, the women stayed there for 3 months for no specific reason, while the men were transferred in Tariq al Sikka after a couple of days. They also told me that the section for women in Tariq al Sikka opened later, so we can speculate this was the reason behind their longer stay in Mitiga. In any case, it seemed there was no way out from the detention center unless through so called assisted voluntary return coordinated by IOM, exactly what the prisoner warned Saikou and the others since their very arrest…
Saikou
Some of us, you know, we like to pay the bernamese[11] like some money because normally the other police, when they caught you, you will pay money. We call it bernamese and they will let you go. But this time, what these Libyan people say, these soldiers, these security guards, you know, is that they will not let any bernamese or any paying money and anyone who want to escape, they will kill you. Because of why, you know, the number that are there, they already sent the number to the European Union[12].
They already know that they catch us, so which make things difficult there, we cannot pay money to go out, you know, and also they are giving us there the shampoos so you know and and and blanket you know toothpaste lot of their say I have to call this support sanitary materials they are supporting us it’s the European Union and there are people is coming there the IOM International Organization for Migration. So if they come there they are always they took our names they started every day they will if they come they will count us.
Lamin Kotta
So, when you come to the detention center, you know, the agreement there was like, you
know, there is no going out. There is no barnamis to pay money and go out. You
know, I can remember, there are bosses. I don’t know where is the commander. Oh, but he is the one charge. It’s the one, you know, it’s the Moodir, it’s the big man there. His son is a soldier. He tried to make, you know, escape I think six people or seven people. So they try to catch, they catch the boy and the boy is the son of the Moodir and they arrest him. They took him to prison for seven days. So that’s why I know these people are not joking. There is no bar, there is no paying money to go out. It’s only coming back or you die there.
Viola
Not even the son of an official could smuggle a few people out of the detention center without being harshly punished But if we keep in mind that the EU-IOM joint initiative was launched in December 2016 would it be too far fetched to think that Libyan authorities had this in mind when they decided to attack in Gargaresh only a month later? This could also explain why guards could not run business as usual extorting money from migrants in exchange for freedom: they could have been willing to comply with the program rules in its initial phase to assure the continuity of the partnership, and its funding, as soon as it started. But it’s important to stress that this was an anomaly, and it didn’t apply to everyone. It concerned people coming from countries where IOM operates return flights – basically countries categorized as “safe”. For others, like Eritreans or Sudanese, who weren’t eligible for return, nothing really changed. They continued, and still continue, to face extortion, forced labor, or even being sold.
So what we see is that the impact of the EU–IOM Joint Initiative actually varied by nationality. Instead of replacing existing revenue streams, it added a new one. In practice, guards and commanders adapted. They became more strategic – deciding when to extort, when to sell spots on boats, and when to channel people toward IOM.But if this is the hypothesis, what is then the degree of co-responsibility of the EU-IOM coalition in the violence suffered by migrants in the attack and in the detention center? Was there a Libya-EU coordinated effort to move people from Gargaresh to the detention center to stop them from crossing the Mediterranean, or was an initiative of Libyan authorities to kick start the project funding and present themselves as reliable partners for the EU? We don’t have the answer to these questions, but to start piecing things together, another important element features in YAIM members testimony: the many visits they received during their detention.
Saikou
So there are one boy, he’s a Hausa from Niger, you know, that person want to escape and they caught him, they beat him until they broke his one arm, you know. So and they are not taking
care of him after that, they will beat him every day because he wants to escape, you know. So but we were there until this delegation come, you know, they said that the European Union, they will change the way they are treating us, you know, because they will not want for those people to see the condition, the real condition that we are in there, you know.
So they took all of us to go out, the way we take our lunch or dinner, you know, is a very open place. So we were sitting according to line each other, you know. So these peoples come, you know, and have a discussion with these Arab peoples. So but for us, they don’t allow us to talk to them much, you know. If you want to talk to these, those peoples, you will see this, the Arab people, they will be standing by you. So you cannot say the real condition that we are there
because if you say all of those things, if those peoples left, then you have a problem, you know. So we are also afraid to tell them the truth.
Lamin Bojang
But sometimes we play them, the one that will be standing will be speaking English, the other one will be speaking French because all those languages, they cannot hear. They only hear some, they can even speak little English for their understanding.
That’s the way we communicate with them sometimes. Sometimes we will write on a paper, and some will write it on their shirts. When you read that statement, you will understand that this is what this guy is talking about. So this is how we try to communicate with them. But it’s not easy because the Libyans, they will not give us a chance. Because when they allow us to say what we want to say, the white men, they will feel that these people, they are not taking care of us.
Tombong
Yes, like Lamin says, it’s very hard for us to talk with the journalists[13], considering that, if anything is said by us regarding the situation that we are facing in that prison, not that you individual person has a problem when those visitors left. So it’s a threat to us to even speak out some of the challenges that we are facing in that prison, considering that these Arab people, they are always around us. And then also the funds that Europeans are giving to these Libyan authorities to detain us there. Because I feel like they are not observing our rights. They are only putting us at a place where most of our rights are violated.
Lamin Kotta
I can remember one day, you know, because since this European delegation started to come, you know, it’s not like they come today and have access to enter in the prison. It’s several times that they are coming,but they don’t used to go inside the prison. But if they took us outside to visit this European delegation, they will close all the prisons, because they don’t want for them to enter there and see the condition that we are living.
But I can remember one day, this woman came. I don’t know whether it’s a journalist or I don’t know. But it’s an old guy. So there is one Gambian man who tell him that, you know, you have to go inside and see where we sleep and see our toilet, you know.
He just speak it fast before these Arab people come. So this is a time that this human turn and tell the Arab man who was escorting her, he tell him, but I wanted to see the prison. The Arab say, no, you know, you don’t allow this. He say, no, we have to see the prison. So that’s the time they come and open the gate. This guy get inside and start to visit the prison. But they don’t, and there was a one guy who was having this camera, but the Arab people didn’t allow him to take pictures inside the prison.
So I can remember that day, you know.
Lamin Bojang
I want to add on what my colleagues just said, you know, because the reason why those Arab people didn’t allow the camera man to take a picture inside the prison because there is a lot of statement on the wall.
They use toothpaste and write here.At that time, you know, we had so many things.
Tijan
Yeah, some statements could be like, you know, we will say like, we need our freedom.
You know, we are only migrants. We don’t come here to stay. We are only passing by going to Europe.
Lamin Kotta
I can remember we have one guy there who is a, who is a, I don’t know, Nigerian or Sierra Leonean. You know, this guy was burned by these Arab people.
You know, they, they, they put, you know, essence[14] on his body.
First of all, on his body, you know, there are three in number. So, but the two were died.
And this, this man, you know, he didn’t die. Yes, he survived. So, you know, if this delegation,
this European delegation is coming in the prison, they will try to keep that guy.
They don’t want a European to see that guy who is burned.
So I can remember one day, what they used to do is, when the European Union comes, they put it inside the toilet and keep him there.
So one day, this European delegation come and there was a guy, I don’t know where there’s a Nigerian or Sierra Leonean, he tried to talk with the journalists, and tell him that there’s one guy there in the toilet: they have burned him. So I want you guys to see that person, you know.
So this, this guy, this white guy was curious and you know, he wanted to know why and who is the guy. So they try to ask them, you know, convince the Arab people.
That’s the time they try to take this guy outside. So, you know, I think this guy was, you know,
he even have a sponsor there. He was, there was a journalist there who was, you know,
I think they were discussing how to support this guy. You know, he didn’t spend that day in the prison.They took him to the hospital and start to, yeah, yeah,
Viola
EU delegations and international organizations visited Tariq al Sikka, but they were prevented from talking with the detainees and seeing their real living conditions. Those carrying signs of violence were hidden by the guards, like in the case of the migrant with a broken arm and the one that was tortured and burned. But could the visitors really ignore what was going on?
Saikou
Yeah, also what I want to add about the, the European, you know, that have come in there,
you know, knowing that the situation that we are in, you know, I can say, you know,
even they don’t know exactly what all is going on, but they know that these peoples are not,
are not, are not happy in this place.
They are not feeling good there because you even see, because we are, we are many peoples, thousands of peoples.
You know, the time we are sitting, someone will, you know, just, we want to go home, you know.
So that already, you know, indicate that these peoples are not happy in here.
You know, perhaps I can say they know it. And the time, what also Lamin is saying, they will not allow them to go to these rooms, but there are times, some have opportunity to go to these rooms.
So that is the case where we see some renovation coming, you know, are coming there
to renovate the place like toilets, you know, because we even heard that they will put the televisions, you know, for there, you know, and those things, you know.
So, and also spray the place where, you know, we are staying.
So perhaps I can say they know the condition that we are living there.
Viola
It is not easy to find documentation on who and why visited Tariq al Sikka in that period, but a IOM press release states that the IOM Director General at the time, William Lacy Swing, now deceased, visited Tariq al Sikka the 22nd of March, meeting also in that occasion the Head of the Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration, Ahmed Issa. Crossing data, I retraced how IOM conducted an anti-scabies treatment in the Triq Al Sekka in February, as YAIM members said, as well as holding a five-day training for managers and staff of Libyan detention centres on: The Promotion and Protection of Migrants’ Human Rights.
But The EU/IOM joint initiative was not the only program implemented in Libya at the time. Exactly in those months the Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding, signed on February 2nd 2017, was in the making. With that agreement, Italy, with mainly EU funding, started to support financially and technically the so-called Libyan Coast Guard and indirectly also the Department for Combating Illegal Migration. Italian ministers visited Tripoli in those weeks, in view of the finalization of the Italy-EU-Libya agreement. It is not unlikely that a delegation also visited Tariq Al Sikka, as one of the official detention centers where migrants pulled back from the sea were supposed to be put while waiting for return.
The memorandum was since then automatically renewed despite multiple lower Italian courts having found Libya unsafe for disembarkation and ruled that the so-called Libyan Coast Guard should not be considered a lawful SAR actor. Since its stipulation, a massive documentation on inhuman conditions in detention centers and violent conduct of the Libyan coast guard came out. The Libyan coast often attacks boats of civil fleets conducting rescuing operations. Despite the EU-IOM joint initiative, l abuses are still perpetrated in Tariq al Sikka and other DCIM detention centers. There are reports of torture of migrants beings sold to other centres.
Tombong
You know for us we need to understand or the European Union need to understand you know all those bilateral agreement that they are having with that Europe and Libyan authority to say like you know they are not fulfilling that you know still the migrants right have been violated in the detention center like okay here let’s say you can hold you can just kept us one place to say like okay we are going to repatriate these people back home but you don’t have to go by extension to you know to violate them.
But these are some of the challenges that we are facing in that prison and then you know it’s like we can’t do anything out of that because some will come home here why you know they will be beaten, they will come out with injuries, they will come out with sickness that they don’t even have it while they were not in the detention center. But you know the condition that you know determine them to have those kind of you know complication sickness that they need medical attention as immediate as it’s possible but you will see you know some of us will not have even
those medical attention. They will rather leave us to die in that prison but not to take us to the nearest hospital to do checkup and everything so you know is so hard for us to understand that has some migrants and then this is something that we are really facing and then people living there are really you know suffering. I thought European Union can do or come up with another approach or strategy where migrants fight will not be violated whenever they are in detention centers
But if the EU could work to make deportations quicker and less painful, as Tombong says, it is essential to keep in mind that under international law, each person’s protection needs must be assessed individually, so returning people quickly based on nationality, for example because they are Gambian, is not a general solution.
Tombong
We are not criminal we are only migrants so I don’t think we need to face some of those human rights violations within that detention center so I think you know, people need to consider that migrants are really suffering up to that, they are suffering in those detention centers because there are various detention centers in Libya[15] and then you know you can imagine how critical those situations are when those migrants are living in those centers
I believe the prison should not be there in the first place.
Regarding European Union are giving more, more funds in order to at least better the condition in that prison, which is not happening.
And then I believe, you know, the 100% knows the condition of those prisoners are very unbearable, are very terrible that a human being can live in that kind of situation.
So, and then also to remedy that situation, I believe like the process or procedures
that they normally take for, you know, these detainees, you know, to stay in that prison
need to be reconsider or need to at least improve, because having like four months, five months in that prison with that kind of hardship and everything, it doesn’t have to go through that stage.
And if you, if we are caught to be deported, I don’t think it need to pass appropriately like let’s say one week, two weeks, you know, people need to go back to their country because if there is no other way, us proceeding, then we don’t have to stay in that kind of situation.
So I believe, you know, lot, lot need to be improved there, you know, and then still people are facing challenges.
If you, you know, think of it, the time we came up to now is like approximately seven years plus, you know, but the conditions are never improved, you know, the conditions are never improved.
Viola
The role of IOM in this context is particularly ambiguous. While the so-called Libyan coast guard and the DCIM push back and detain people on the move, the IOM compassionately deports them. The violent practices of the EU backed Libyan actors are softened by EU backed IOM so called voluntary and humanitarian return, but one cannot exist without the other, without violent pushbacks there are no returns, and without returns there won’t be violent pushback.
Saikou
So for IOM, what I see for us, the migrants in Libya, they are, what they are doing is just like return people’s, you know, when they came back to their, when they go back to their country and give them small supports, like this reintegration package. So it’s just like IOM, what I see is, what they are doing is just like return our integration to support people. And you,
if you want to protect the migrants, you know, and they are right, I don’t think, you know, it’s has to be only returning them and, you know, so giving them some money, because some of these migrants, they did not even want to go back. Like our case, you know, we did not want to go come back to Gambia here. But, you know, the condition that is there, we left with no choice. Because these Arab people, what they told us that is, you know, you guys will not pay the, any money to go out. And also, if you want to escape, we will kill you. And also, if you don’t go
back to your country, you will die in this prison. So which means we have no choice. The only choice that we have is to come back to our country.[16]
Because if it is only these Arab peoples, you know, if this is their choice, we all know. If they will
let us to pay money and go, you know, to proceed, because that is what is happening there. But when this European Union intervenes, telling them, telling them that don’t kill them, but keep them one place, you know, and it will be how to call them, return them back to their country. And that is what they do.
So it’s just like they are the one, they are stopping people like we are supporting them, but like the problem, they are the one who cause the problems, you know. So it’s making this, making movements difficult for us Africans, you know.
Lamin Kotta
Because even for us, we planned it in our prison to escape, yeah, because, you know, since we start to, you know, the situation was very tough on our head, and we, the Gambians, we decided to do action, you know, for us to try and escape.
Because even the time we newly arrive at that distance on center, when we go outside, when we are taking our food, we will be there observing, you know, where we are going to escape, you know.
But the place is very tight and very secure, they really secure the place, you don’t even have a place that whereby you will try to escape.
And I can remember, you know, these asma people, they came there to, you know, to try to fight with these people so that they can free us, they can break the prison.
But unfortunately, they cannot escape. But this night, this night was very tough and very hard for us, because we were in the prison, and the gate, you know, they closed the gate, you know, we cannot open the gate, and these people are making fire outside, they are shooting each other.
So, you know, we were very, very, very, very scared on that night, and they are only God who save us on that night, that these asthma people, they cannot break the prison, these asthma people, you know, all their business that is going on there, is we, the Africans, that are making that business to go smoothly, because they have shops.We are the ones who used to go and buy cigarettes and all these stuffs.[17]
When it comes to their flies,we are the ones staying there and paying the house.
You understand?
So when you go to these connections also, all the things that they used to buy there, that theramodong, that ogogoro, that hashish, that safe sea, we are the ones going to buy it there.
You understand?
So I think this is why, you know, they don’t want us to leave that place called Gargaresh or Colombia.
Yeah, because I got to see that they come to arrest us. These asthma people came there to, you know, to fight with them so that they can release us.
Saikou
Yeah, it’s just like, you know, those asma boys,because they will not like doing work.
They will not do work. Only thing that they will do, you know, is like involving this smuggling, you know, and also, kidnapping the migrants, you know, taking their money, you know, beating them, give them the phone to call their people, to send the money to them, you know.[18]
So those are the things that they are doing. So if they did not see any migrants,
all these, all migrants, they were caught in the prisons, which means they are not having income. So they will go and fight these people, you know.
So that’s why sometimes you will see the asma’s, they will go and break the prisons, because our prison is not the first time.
They used to do it there.If these people catch many migrants, they will go and break the prison.
So they are depending on, they are depending on the migrants.
So that is the reason why they come and attack the prison.
Viola
This is where the idea of the bioeconomy really comes into play. The bodies of migrants aren’t just moving through borders – they’re being fought over, turned into resources that can be monetized in all kinds of ways. In a fragmented state, where different local and international powers are constantly contending for control, migrants turn into a resource to fight for. Asmas, who as we said in the previous episode are street gangs, guards, traffickers, smugglers, even regular citizens want to profit from their presence
Lamin
It’s something that I want to clarify, you know.
Yeah, these asma people,it’s not like only the asthma people are relying on the migrants.
It’s not only asthma people, even the government, the police, the soldiers, they are also working with these migrants.
It’s not only the asma that smuggles people, but the connection is there between them and the government.
Because for me, since I was going to Tripoli, you know, there was one Arab man who was smuggling us to read in Tripoli.
So the day that they come to arrested us,I see this Arab man there with a full arm. So I was very surprised. I say, wow, this is the guy who bring me here. And this guy turn and come to arrest with even no mercy. So I was very surprised that they are so,these people are fake, you know.
They walk this way and they walk this other way also.
So yeah, they are not, it’s not only the asma boys that are, you know, working with this migrant, even the government himself, they are working with the asma.
Saikou
Like, it’s just like, you know, what I can see, that it’s just like there is no control there.
Once you can be in the service system, another day you can be with the asma, the smugglers,
because there is no ruling government there.
So which means everyone is doing what they want to do. So, and also to pay them, even though service,I don’t think they are having that much payment like compared to before.
So which make, because what he said is,even us from, you know, from, from Sigidim to Sabah,
there is a service man who smuggles us.
The person who was, he’s a soldier, you know, and he’s someone who also, you know, learn,
he went even to Ghana to learn about this. He can speak English very well, you know.
So boy, he’s a young boy, but what he said is that, even him, he’s doing this, but he don’t want to do it. But because of why he go and learn and even serving the service and, you know,
he’s not having anything, you know, and he need to do something.
So which mean today you can be the service,tomorrow you’ll be in the asmas. So there is no control, you know.
Viola
As Lamin points out, there is often a direct connection between smugglers and security forces, and sometimes as in the story he just told, it is the same person that plays both roles. Numerous reports and testimonies confirm that militias have shifted from smuggling to counter-smuggling, exploiting EU funding while continuing their violent practices.[19]
In the meantime more of these agreements were made by EU member states, the EU commission and government of so-called transit countries, like the one with Tunisia[20], repeating the same patterns of violence and abuse once again.
Saikou
Tunisia also is very hard, you know. So because you will see this Tunisian, you know, security’s, they will come and burn the place of the migrants, you know, beating them, you know,
like many other things is happening there, you know[21].
So we also heard that, you know, then the European Union also go to Tunisia, you know,
and make it the arrangement with them, like if they can, you know, stop this migration
of the migrants, you know, entering Europe.
So it’s just like, you know, any way that come out, the migrants are taking the way, you know,
they will try, you know, and they will try to engage those countries, African countries, so that they can stop this migration, you know.
But if they want to protect, because they are making it difficult for peoples, peoples, the really peoples will be migrating.
If to go to the other way is difficult, they will use the other way.
So the things that they can do, I think,is that to make things easier.
Even this by land, they can bring the protocols that, you know, we will follow. You know, if you want to travel by land, these are the documents that you need.
If that’s happen, you know, people will not use this smuggling way that much. So like this borders management and these things, it makes the migrants, you know, to dive the borders,
which can cause many harm to them, you know, because they will be engaging this bandits.
So which make their life very risk, you know.
So that is not helping the migrants. If they want to protect the migrants and help the migrants,
you know, let them make migration easier, you know, and be fair to everyone so that we can get travel.
But if that not happen, always this violation, you know, and harassment and those things will be continue happening.
And people to stop this migration, people will not stop to migrate. People will continue to migrate. If the other way is hard, they will take another way.
Lamin Bojang
Yeah, I want to say something about Tunisia. The European Union, their intervention in Tunisia
is not helping the migrants.
Because when you look at it, those Tunisians, with the way they were handling those migrants,
they go and throw them into the desert, killing them.
So when they are to help, let them help in a way that, you know, people’s life will be spared, they will, you know, have protections and, you know, at least a better condition
where they will be.
That is very important, you know.
Tombong
Yes, just to add on what they are saying about Tunisia, and most recently, what is happening is unbearable.
I saw one article that Tunisian government has been sent on to ICC, you know[22].
Yeah, and then what is happening right now at the sea, is like, if they caught these people,
they will take their engine and leave them to drown, leave them to die[23].
So this is so unbearable. And then I don’t think, you know, European need to support this,
this thing that these people need to drown in the sea.
You know, you know, lot is happening right now,and all is happening to these migrants, you know.
Viola
And here we arrive at the end of this episode. We confronted the harsh reality of detention, trying to understand what has been the role of the EU and IOM,.. Certain questions we posed in this episode go unanswered as what role the EU-IOM joint initiative played in the violent raid and detention of people who, remember, were still in Tripoli and not in the sea making the crossing, and why guards in Tariq Al Sikka suspended the usual practice of extortion. What is certain is The EU and its member states like Italy seem to be ready to do whatever it takes to stop people and externalize not only borders but also their brutality but as Tombong says, this won’t stop them, you cannot contain human mobility[24].
We will talk about their resilience in the next episode, exploring what people in detention center do to stay human and how the IOM repatriation and reintegration program works, or not.
This podcast series is made possible thanks to the participation of Fatou Bojang, LaminBojang, Fatou Cham, Madou Cissey, Fatoumata Darboe, Tijan Jerju, Lamin Kotta,Tombong Kuyate, Saikou Tunkara. It has been funded by the German Research Foundation and the Outreach Program of the University of Bayreuth. It has been funded by the German Research Foundation and the Outreach Program of the University of Bayreuth.
Editing and storytelling codevelopment by Daniele Lucchini and sound design by Ismael Astri Lo and Daniele Lucchini. Conceptual guidance from Ian McCook. The voices in English when Fatou Bojang and Fatou Cham speak in mandinka are those of Samira Marty and Julia Leman. For this episode we thank Allison West of the European Center For Constitutional and Human Right for her kind legal supervision. We warmly thank all colleagues and friends whose invaluable advice helped shape this series. Thank you for listening – we hope you’ll
continue the journey with us.
[1] See profile of the detention center here, keeping in mind that in 2017 it just started operating and the conditions were much worse than now: https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/africa/libya/detention-centres/2036/triq-al-seka-detention-center
[2]See EU website: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/memo_16_4422
[3]Forensis, a no profit research center connected to Forensic Architecture, collaborating with and for victims of state and corporate violence to support their demands for justice, made a visual reconstruction of a Libyan detention center based on testimonies collected, you can watch it at this link: https://counter-investigations.org/investigation/escaping-libyas-detention-industry/
[4]There are plenty of infesting insects in detention centers, including maggots, bad bugs, lices and parasites like scabies, which further compromise people’s health and are caused by overcrowding and poor hygienic conditions.
[5]There is usually no natural light in detention centers, but only strong fluorescent artificial light on 24h/7, that is why Lamin’s eyes could not readapt to natural light when he was brought outside. See this New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe#:~:text=Overhead%20were%20fluorescent%20lights%20that,?%E2%80%9D%20he%20asked%20a%20cellmate.
[6]The “people caught at sea” are those intercepted by Libyan authorities, what many human rights organizations claim to be push-backs, because their right to international protection is not taken into account, because Libya cannot be considered a “safe country” and because a proper Maritime Rescue Coordination Center doesn’t properly exist till now. At the time YAIM members were detained, Libya did not even have a recognized Search and Rescue Zone, which was officialized only in 2018. For the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights “Since 2016, the EU has increased its capacity-building and operational support for the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, including the provision of funding, patrol boats, equipment and training. Officials of the EU and its Member States also participate directly in specific interceptions, for example, by providing information on the location of boats in distress through the use of FRONTEX drones” (https://www.ecchr.eu/en/case/interceptions-of-migrants-and-refugees-at-sea/). However, even with the previous bilateral agreement between Libya and Italy signed in 2008 and suspended in 2011, push backs were carried out (see Giuffré, M. (2012). State responsibility beyond borders: What legal basis for Italy’s push-backs to Libya? International Journal of Refugee Law, 24(4), 692-734.). The difference with 2017 is the scale of the collaboration (Italy, Libya, Malta and the EU), the budget and the technology, as well as the creation of a formal SAR zone, which can be seen as a legal fiction through which the EU extends borders while formally remaining in the realm of international law.
[7]What Tombong refers to is the fact that people who were severely sick could be brought to the desert by guards so that they didn’t need to dispose of the bodies in case of death. In January and February 2025, UN agencies reported the discovery of mass graves in the Libyan desert near Jikharra and Kufra, holding at least 93 bodies of migrants, some showing signs of torture or gunshots. It cannot be verified if these bodies came from detention centers, but as Tombong highlights, this was a practice enforced in Tariq Al-Sikka at the time.
[8]Despite not being formally part of the EU border regime, Algeria cracked down harshly on migration, often imposing severe prison sentences on alleged smugglers and people on the move. In recent years the country started to cooperate informally with the EU, and has ramped up its detention and deportation operations in response to mounting pressure from Europe.
[9]On bioeconomies in illegalized migration see: Achtnich, M. (2022). Bioeconomy and migrants’ lives in Libya. Cultural Anthropology, 37(1), 9-15.
Andersson, R. (2018). Profits and predation in the human bioeconomy. Public Culture, 30(3), 413-439.
[10]This is the article in Arabic from the 16th of January 2017: https://lana.gov.ly/post.php?lang=ar&id=109266. I also found a facebook post of the Al Raada Militiae (the one to which international criminals Almasri and El Hishri, wanted by the ICC), documenting a raid on Gargaresh on the 6th of January 2017, which features an interesting video composition and this caption: “On this day in 2017, the Special Deterrence Force carried out extensive raid and arrest operations in the Gargaresh area. This resulted in the arrest of many drug dealers and distributors inside hideouts that had been beyond the reach of numerous security agencies for decades, as well as the arrest of a large number of human traffickers and undocumented migrants. We also ask Almighty God to accept our colleague Lotfi Bakra, who gave his life while fighting alcohol and drug traffickers.”https://www.facebook.com/rctoc.gov/videos/%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B3/1851344274959730/
[11]Bernamese means bribe, even if I am not sure in which kind of pidgin language. There is a specific slang shared by people on the move along the route, which often mixes Arabic, English or French words, this could be one of them.
[12]There is no public evidence that guards running official detention centers in Libya send the information of detainees to European partners. Nevertheless, as the process is marked by opacity, it could be that in the first phase of the partnership, Libyan authorities communicated to the European Union Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM) the number of people waiting for repatriation through IOM Assisted Voluntary Return, or that the guards told the detainees this information even if not true as a mean to control them and discourage them from escaping.
[13]According to Association for Juridical Studies of Migration (ASGI) ambassadors and diplomatic missions from various countries visited detention centres such as Tariq al-Sikka in and around Tripoli to see conditions firsthand. These visits were often intended at least partly to show that some oversight was taking place, even if later reports by activists and researchers contradicted the impression given by those visits (https://sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Atti-convegno_EN-1.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com). Journalists also entered detention centers in 2017, including Tariq Al Sikka, see https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eu-seeks-solution-to-trans-mediterannean-refugee-crisis-a-1161436.html
[14]Gasoline
[15]There are 14 official detention centers operating in Libya at the moment, but many more that are considered informal and that often collaborate with the official ones: https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/africa/libya
[16]On deportations masked as voluntary return see Fine, S., & Walters, W. (2022). No place like home? The International Organization for Migration and the new political imaginary of deportation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(13), 3060-3077.
[17]The businesses Lamin mentions are also part of the bioeconomies, more or less predatory, that flourish along the routes and that are often controlled by criminal groups.
[18]Multiple reports from 2017 detail the Asma Boys as a gang in Sabha, Libya, notorious for intercepting migrant vehicles at checkpoints, selling or holding migrants for ransom when smugglers couldn’t pay, and torturing victims to extort family payments: https://www.themigrantproject.org/kidnap-migrants/
[19]This connections between traffickers, smugglers and government has been registered by the EU itself, as it is revealed in a leaked EU memorandum shared by StateWatch which acknowledges that capturing migrants was now “a profitable business model”https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2019/sep/eu-council-libya-11538-19.pd
[20]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2023/751467/EPRS_ATA(2023)751467_EN.pdf
[21]https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/tunisia-detention-and-desert-dumping-of-sub-saharan-refugees
[22]https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/136710-crimes-against-migrants-tunisia-radicalising-icc-act.html
[23]https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/19/tunisia-no-safe-haven-black-african-migrants-refugees
[24]A fundamental documentation on the various violations of human rights perpetrated in Libya and on the complicity of IOM and UNHCR in them, can be found in the “Book of Shame”, a report produced three self-organized refugee collectives, Refugees in Libya, Refugees in Tunisia and Refugees in Niger. The book is available as pdf in the website of Refugees in Libya: https://www.refugeesinlibya.org/book-of-shame
llustration by Daniele Castellano, suggestion of scene depicted:YAIM
Abstract: Backway to Europe is a podcast series produced in collaboration with Gambian advocates and activists. It centers their analyses of the border regime through their direct experiences of “the backway” — the local term for the illegalized route to Europe. These experiences resonate with many who have attempted to reach Europe across West Africa and beyond. Episode 1 begins where the story itself begins: with the hyper-restrictive European visa system for Gambian nationals that renders the backway the only viable option for many. It explains why obtaining a visa is almost impossible and sets the stage for later episodes, which show how European influence on Gambian national politics operates through global and historically layered inequalities that perpetuate neocolonial dynamics. The second episode explores the material and symbolic motivations for Gambian youth choosing the backway to Europe, contrasting the modern, individualized pressure to provide for family through remittances with the more communal and respected social status of “semesters” (emigrants) from previous generations. The third episode discusses how YAIM members retrace their perilous backway journey towards Europe in 2016/2017, across West African borders into Libya, highlighting the systemic violence, corruption, and gendered abuse inherent in these routes. In this fourth episode we will discuss what happened once they were transferred to the detention center of Tariq al Sika and how it COULD BE connected to what was going on in terms of the agreements between Libya, Italy and the EU.
