Another undeclared reason for NATO and U.N action against Gaddafi regime.

I was searching for the news reports of the recent deportations ordered by Gaddafi of African migrants to Italy, to use as a counter argument against people claiming black people whom are being targeted and executed by the Rebels are only mercs.

Funnily enough I stumbled on this article made by the BBC, exactly 1 year ago today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11139345

Gaddafi seeking money to stop migrants leaving Libya and going into Europe, in my view just another excuse for NATO involvement in Libya. Also the fact that there are so many black African migrants living in Libya, waiting to hitch a ride to Europe helps refute the claims by those who condone murder, by saying Gaddafis whole army merely consisted of black African mercs, and those caught in Libya by the Rebels are likely mercs and are not there for other reasons and should be dealt with.

 

They weren't going to Europe.. They were going back to Chad and Kenya and Eithiopia.

 

So.. there's not hundreds of thousands of black migrants trying to get into Europe through Italy each year?.... Please.

 

Do you think anyone can move to Europe??


Here: Migrant workers aren't the same as Mercenaries.

Migrant Labor in the New Libya

Before the crisis, as many as 2.5 million migrants worked in Libya, making it one of the biggest importers of labor in the region. The migrants came mostly from Africa and Asia for jobs in the oil and construction industries. The influx of foreign workers began in the 1990s, when, in response to UN trade sanctions, Libya increasingly relied on sub-Saharan labor to fuel its oil economy.

More recently, since 2003, when Libya’s rapprochement with the United States and Europe began, the tide of migrants has continued to rise. As part of the privatization of Libya’s economy, hundreds of thousands of workers have come from Bangladesh and the Philippines, as well as from other countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Some of them entered the country on legal work permits, but the vast majority came illegally.

Since the start of the fighting, close to 300,000 migrant workers have crossed from Libya into Tunisia and Egypt. Most are from poor countries that did not provide means for their citizens to return to their home countries.

Most of the refugees arrived at the camps with little but the shirt on their backs, having been robbed by Libyan officials on their way out of the country. As the men and women at the Ras Adjir camp in Tunisia explained, this was not the first time they had been robbed or assaulted by Libyan authorities.

http://www.fpif.org/articles/migrant_workers_in_libya

 

Ok, so there's migrants there who's sole purpose was to work in Libya. There's also migrants who's main purpose is to emigrate to Europe, there's also black mercenaries, and non black mercenaries, but how does this refute claims that black Africans no matter the reason they claim they're in Libya for are now being rounded up and executed by the Rebels? It doesn't. But thank's for shedding some light on the migrant situation in Libya.

 

You mean illegals.. Pretty hard to do.

 

Legal, illegal, still migrants.

 

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201122865814378541.html

s nations evacuate their citizens from the violence gripping Libya, many African migrant workers are targeted because they are suspected of being mercenaries hired by Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

Dozens of workers from sub-Saharan Africa are feared killed, and hundreds are in hiding, as angry mobs of anti-government protesters hunt down "black African mercenaries," according to witnesses.

About 90 Kenyans and another 64 citizens from South Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Burundi landed in Nairobi on Monday, according to officials.

"We were being attacked by local people who said that we were mercenaries killing people. Let me say that they did not want to see black people," Julius Kiluu, a 60-year-old building supervisor, told Reuters.

"Our camp was burnt down, and we were assisted by the Kenyan embassy and our company to get to the airport," he said.

Rights organisations say that thousands of workers are stranded in camps and private homes, protected by their colleagues as their governments fail to evacuate them from the chaos.

"But why is nobody concerned about the plight of sub-Saharan African migrants in Libya? As victims of racism and ruthless exploitation, they are Libya's most vulnerable immigrant population, and their home country governments do not give them any support," Hein de Haas, a senior fellow with the International Migration Institute, writes in his blog.

Al Jazeera’s Nazenine Moshiri met Seidou Boubaker Jallou, a Malian citizen, who said he fled Libya after many black migrants came under attack.

"The most dangerous situation is for foreigners like us - and also us black people - because Gaddafi brought soldiers from Chad and Niger who reportedly killed Arabs," he said.

Experts say that Gaddafi has had a long relationship with African fighters who now came to his assistance.

Low-paid labourers

Hundreds of black immigrants from poor African countries, who mainly work in Libya’s oil industry as cheap labourers, have also been injured in the violence. Some were unable to seek medical treatment for fear of being killed.

Saad Jabbar, deputy director of the North Africa Centre at Cambridge University, confirms Africans have become targets.

"I tell you, these people, because of their scheme, they will be slaughtered in Libya. There is so much anger there against those mercenaries, which suddenly sprung up," Jabbar said.

About 1.5m Sub-Saharan African migrants work in Libya as low-paid labourers in the oil industry, construction, agriculture and service sectors.

Rights organisations say some anti-Gaddafi protesters wrongly associate African workers with state-sponsored violence.

"African immigrants are now linked to state-orchestrated violence and mass killings, and we may therefore fear the worst about the violent backlash that may follow particularly after Gaddafi is ousted," said Haas.

Ignored by their governments, African workers are one of the most vulnerable groups in Libya right now. Analysts say unless a preventative measure is taken, a massive bloodletting is feared.

"I think it is urgent to do something about it now, otherwise, a genocide against anyone who has black skin and who doesn't speak perfect Arabic is possible," said Jabbar.

 

A strawman..By definition, their illegal status precludes them becoming migrants.

 

Maybe so... But an individual whom goes abroad to look for work, and live there then they are migrants whether they've come into that country legally or illegally, they'd still fit the criteria of a human migrant. Anyway, less side stepping please.

 

I'm not side-stepping...You were the one who constructed the red-herring - namely: " hundreds of thousands of black migrants....are.... trying to get into Europe through Italy each year". They can try all they like but the vast majority will be forbidden entering.