Geneva, The United Nations has appealed for all refugees and migrants to be evacuated from detention centres in conflict areas of Libyan capital Tripoli, where deadly fighting between rival militias flared last month.
“The risks are simply unacceptable at this point,” said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean.
“People inside detention centres in Tripoli are facing ever-increasing dangers, making it vital that we immediately move them out of harm’s way.”
The UNHCR also voiced concern at the use of migrant detention centres for weapons and military equipment storage.
“Utilising civilian infrastructure in this manner constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law and must be avoided at all costs,” it said in a statement.
The appeal for the evacuation of all refugees and migrants from Tripoli conflict zones comes after an air strike overnight on Tuesday hit a target less than 100 metres from the Tajoura detention centre, where over 500 people are being held.
The UNHCR said two people were wounded in the air strike in which shrapnel hit the detention centre’s roof. The attack prompted France’s President Emmanuel Macron to call for a ceasefire in Tripoli, where militias loyal to the UN-backed government have been battling eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar’s militia, which entered the city on April 5.
At least 443 people have been killed and 2,110 wounded in the fighting in Tripoli since early April while nearly 60,000 people have fled their homes, according to the UN World Health Organisation.
Some 3,460 refugees and migrants remain in detention centres near to conflict-affected areas, the UNHCR warned, urging countries to come forward with further offers of humanitarian corridors and relocation.
Since the onset of the conflict in Tripoli, the UNHCR has relocated over 1,200 people from high-risk locations in the capital to safer areas – most recently in an airlift of 146 people to Italy on April 29, the UN agency said.
