Libya oasis town offers rare ‘Safe House’ for migrants

Having arrived in Libya two years ago to work, Rasta came across many migrants robbed of their possessions and left without shelter in the wild by kidnappers.

“I decided I had to do something… and I started to organise things here,” with help from local residents, said Rasta.

“I’ve seen a lot of things here. I’ve seen people die. They come here very sick” from torture and abuse.

– Cemetery in lunar landscape –

Apart from running the Safe House, the “Association for Peace in Bani Walid” has set aside a two-hectare (five-acre) plot for a cemetery to bury migrants’ corpses.

Between 30 and 40 are found in the area every month, said its chairman, Hatem Atawaijir.

“Most have died of hunger, but some of them carry signs of torture,” he said.

The cemetery is set in a lunar landscape, an arid plot dotted with black volcanic rocks at the end of a stony track some 15 kilometres out of Bani Walid.

Diggers have carved out one-metre-wide (one-yard-wide) trenches, ready for the next anonymous victims to add to the 400 already buried.

On a visit to the grim scene, Atawaijir could not control his anger over what he termed the indifference of Libyan authorities and the international community.

“Their only concern is to prevent migrants reaching their side of the Mediterranean!” he fumed.