libya's dark knights the vigilantes cracking down on people smuggling
TRANSCRIPT
Libya's Dark Knights: The vigilantes cracking down on people
smuggling
In the absence of a functioning state, a group of vigilantes have
taken action against people-smuggling networks
The Masked Men of Zuwara are trying to restore law and order in
Libya (MEE / Karlos Zurutuza)Karlos Zurutuza's pictureKarlos
Zurutuza-Thursday 3 December 2015Middle East EyeZUWARA, Libya The
sight of masked men inside black pick-up trucks would be inherently
distressing in most places around the world, but this image brings
a sense of reassurance to the residents of Zuwara, Libya's
northernmost city.Known as thethe Masked Men, the group denies it
isa militia and insists there is noreligious or political agenda.
Rather, the menplan to instill a sense of law and order in a part
of Libya that has been ravaged by smuggling rings and criminal
gangs in recent months.Once a sleepy coastal town, since this
summer Zuwara became a centre of crime and misery.While Zuwara has
traditionally been a major departure point for migrants of their
way to Italy. The town's 60,000 residents were hardly prepared,
when on 27 August, the town woke up to find their white sandy beach
littered with nearly200 corpsesafter an old wooden boat capsized a
few miles off the coast, killing almost half of the passengers on
board.The Zuwaris dug a mass grave, andmarchedfrom the town square
to the port to demand action.Zuwara cannot be a home for murderers,
they chanted in their local Amazigh language.It wasn't the first
time townspeople had demonstrated against the smugglers, but the
scale of the last tragedy led them to demand that this would be the
last.Despite the groups insistence on privacy, Middle East Eye was
able to negotiate an interview with Ayman al-Kafaz, the Masked Mens
commander-in-chief.Kafaz told MEE that the group was originally set
up in January 2013 as the Special Intervention Squad aimed at
tackling any criminal activity, but that the movement has expanded
rapidly over the last two years. Today, the Masked Men say they
have 130-able bodied recruits half of whom are policemen - working
in 24-hour shifts.The group is officially registered in Tripoli's
Ministry of Interior, and that's where, according to Kafaz, the
salaries for the Masked Men are paid.Since the 2011 overthrow of
long-time strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the security situation has
deteriorated sharply. Waring militias now control vast chunks of
the country, with two rival parliaments, Tripoli and Tobruk, vying
for power and the Islamic State group rising up amidst the
chaos.The rule of law has vanished in Libya but it's still in force
in Zuwara, Kafaz said.The commander recalled that since the August
incident, the Masked Men have arrested over 35 people with
allegedly links to human-trafficking. While MEE could not verify if
these men were still locked up and could not inspect the conditions
they were being kept in, residents insist that life has become much
better since the crackdown.Kafaz admitted the situation is far from
perfect but he labelled Europe's measures which have involved
trying to stop smuggling ships once they leave Libya - to tackle
the migrants as totally useless.If Brussels really wants to stop
the flow of people it should empower local authorities on the
southern shore of the Mediterranean as well as organisations as
ours. This is the last gate [before Europe] and we're able to
control it if we receive enough support, Kafaz added.Civil servants
like Sadiq Jiash, who works as a local council official, largely
support the arrival of the Masked Men.Theres no functional
government in the country and we realised that we needed to do
something to cope with the growing crisis in our territory, he told
MEE.Jiash is a civil servant and president of the Zuwaras Emergency
Committee, an organisation set up in April 2014 and run by 35 local
volunteers, including doctors, fire-fighters and members of the
local Red Crescent amongst others.In the case of the migrants, we
look for the corpses and aid in the rescue attempts in full
coordination with the local administration, the civil society and
the Masked Men, Jiash said while insisting that he was highly
satisfied with the degree of collaboration between all the
sides.Thousands of people have drowned in the Mediterranean this
year (MEE / Karlos Zurutuza)Turning the tideThe growing chaos has
been allowing smugglers to thrivein Libyaand many in Zuwara had
been growing ostentatiously rich on the illicit trade for years. So
far this year, more than 140,000 people have set off to Italy from
Libya and Tunisia, with a significant proportion of people coming
through Zuwara. Almost 3,000 people have died trying to make the
journey. On Thursday, Italian navy rescue boats pulled 1,500
migrants from the sea off the coast of Libya in just a few
hours.Gaddafi had the key to control the flux of migrants and
eventually used them to put the pressure on the EU. But everything
went out of control after the war [in 2011], Jiash
said.FollowingGaddafi'sremoval, lawlessness set in. While the town
has tried to take matters into its hands previously by arresting
alleged troublemakers, Zuwara does not have a prison.We organised
ourselves to arrest the smugglers and transfer them to neighbouring
Sabrata or Zawiya two neighbouring locations, said Jiash. But they
were soon back in business. Corruption in Libya is rife, you
know?After the catastrophe on the beach though, and with the
prospect of EU military action and possible airstrikes to take out
smuggling networks, residents decided they could stay silent no
more.When 10 days after the boat capsized, the Masked Men appeared
on the scene, residents were desperate for change. The groups first
act was to reportedly arrest about a dozen people deemed to have
links with smuggling networks. Instead of sending them elsewhere,
they just created a makeshift prison in Zuwara.Coping with chaosThe
solution is far from ideal - but there are few alternatives. Today,
the road that connects Zuwara with Tripoli remains blocked most of
the time due to periodic clashes that break out between rival
militias on the coastal way. The same applies to theless-travelled
roadsouth to the Nafusa Mountains, Libya's main Amazigh
stronghold.From the town's Red Crescent offices, Ibrahim Atushi,
head of the NGO's local emergency committee, blamed the country's
split between two rival centres of power for the shortage of
medicines and other basic supplies. While one governmentoperates
from Tripoli, another is seated some 1,000 kilometres east in
Tobruk.The roads are blocked so we can hardly cater for the local
population and the 3,000 registered foreign workers among us, [who]
mostly [are] Sub-Saharans, Atushi told MEE.Other than providing
medical assistance to locals, the Red Crescent has been
overstretched trying to tackle the migrant and refugee crisis.We
have to register the corpses and conduct DNA tests. We also take
pictures of the clothes to find clues on the whereabouts of the
missing, Atushi said.However, he also pointed out that the number
of bodies has diminished drastically over the last few months
thanks to the Masked Men and the work of civil society.We cooperate
with them [the Masked Men] and they call us every time they find
migrants. They're a group of well-educated local men, many of which
even have university degrees, said Atushi.Cul-de-sacAmiri from
Nigeria has found himself stuck in Zuwara after the smuggling
routes were choked off (MEE / Karlos Zurutuza)Although
controversial, the crackdown on Zuwara's trafficking network has
seemingly proved effective. In October, MEE was able to spend time
on boardDignity One, one of the Doctors Without Borders vessels
rescuing migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean.The
organisation reports that the majority of the rescues efforts in
recent months have place near Tripoli rather than Zuwara,
indicating that fewer migrants are setting off from there.The
number of boats departing from Zuwara had been significantly low
over the last few months, Dignity One project coordinator Juan
Matias said.Migrants who spoke to MEE said that Zuwara is no longer
known as a key departure point for Europe, but rather
acul-de-sac.But not everyone is happy about the development. Amiri,
a 23-year from Nigeria told MEE he left his village almost two
years ago and had only just gathered the $500 to jump on a raft to
Europe.I only came to Zuwara because someone told me it was a much
safer place to stay until I left, he said.Now hes stuck. Amiri says
he may brave Libyas perilous roads to travel to another more
lawless part of Libya where smugglers continue to work out in the
open, militias hunt down and arbitrarily detain migrants for ransom
and police officers beat and arrest them. But at least here he says
he may have a greater shot of finally reaching a better life in
Europe, and for many others like him its a risk worth taking.
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