REVUE DE PRESSE, Réfugié-e-s Libye
du 2 au 6 mai
Le nombre de réfugié-e-s à avoir fui la Libye pour les pays frontaliers varient en fonction des sources. D’après le communiqué de la commission européenne de cette semaine, ils seraient 650 000, alors que le HCR parle de 550 000 réfugié-e-s.
Depuis quelques jours, la frontière tunisienne voit affluer un nombre de plus en plus important de réfugié-e-s de tribus berbères qui vivent dans les montagnes du sud-ouest de la Libye, une communauté longtemps persécutée par le dictateur libyen. Ils ont été 8 000 ce week-end à entrer en Tunisie par le poste frontière de Dehiba, où un nouveau camp de tentes a été installé par le HCR (plus au sud du camp de la Choucha).
Des affrontements ont toujours lieu, à quelques kilomètres du camp, entre les forces de Kadhafi et les rebelles pour le contrôle de ce poste frontière. Pour le moment il semble toujours aux mains des rebelles. Jeudi dernier (28 avril), les forces de Kadhafi ont pénétré de plusieurs kilomètres dans le territoire tunisien lors d’une attaque contre les rebelles, ce contre quoi la Tunisie a fortement protesté.
Dans le port Misrata, des centaines de personnes et de blessés attendent leur évacuation. L’OIM a appelé cette semaine les deux parties au conflit à permettre l’évacuation de 1 000 personnes bloquées dans le port assiégé.
CNN, le 04-05-11
Exodus of Libyans to Tunisia resumes
More than 8,000 people, (most of them women and children) fled into Tunisia during the weekend to escape fighting between Libyan government troops and opposition forces. The refugees arriving in Dehiba, are predominantly from ethnic Berber tribes that have long been persecuted by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Opposition forces continue to have control of the border crossing despite fighting that has spilled into Tunisian territory. More than 550,000 people, mostly migrant workers, have fled Libya for neighboring countries, according to UNHCR.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/03/libya.refugees/
The Malta Independent Online, le 04-05-11
Minorities continue to flee Libya to Tunisia, Lampedusa
The Italian island of Lampedusa has received some 3,200 people, mostly sub-Saharan Africans fleeing Libya over the last five days, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday. The arrivals over the last five days bring the total number of people fleeing to Lampedusa to 8,100. Malta, the UNHCR noted yesterday, had received 1,132 people from Libya back in mid-April. Over the last weekend, in fact, over 8,000 people, most of them ethnic Berber women and children, arrived in Dehiba in southern Tunisia.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=124576
Voa News, le 03-05-11
UN Asks West for Help with Libyan Refugee Crisis
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that hundreds of thousands of refugees are moving out of Libya. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on Western nations to help. He asked Western Europe to adapt a more positive and pro-active migration policy, especially toward younger refugees looking for economic opportunity.
AFP, le 03-05-11
Aid agencies seek sea and land access to Misrata
The international migration agency appealed to all sides in the Libyan crisis Tuesday to allow a ship to evacuate about 1,000 stranded migrants as well as mounting casualties from the besieged port of Misrata. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that several hundred patients needed evacuation for urgent medical treatment, while the international Red Cross said it would try to reach Misrata by land.
AFP, le 01-05-11
Libyan refugees keep up flood into Tunisia
A flow of Libyans keep crossing into Tunisia from Libya at the Dehiba border post. Sunday, a record of 5 000 refugees crossed the border. The Kaddafi’s soldiers attacked rebels manning the frontier on Thursday, penetrating several kilometers into Tunisian territory and prompting a strong protest from Tunis.
AFP, le 23-04-11
Refugees from Libya celebrate Easter in camp
An all-male group of 60-odd people, mainly Eritreans and Nigerians, gathered to pray and sing psalms in a makeshift church of two tents, while the women prepared a traditional Eritrean dish. There are about 10 000 waiting in a camp.
The camp at Choucha houses about 6,000 refugees, most of whom are hoping to obtain refugee status enabling them to demand seek asylum in a safe country.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees set up a structure in the camp a week ago to study all the applications.