Ms Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui:

Most recently some of the smugglers and traffickers were put on the Security Council list for sanctions. This is a welcome development. There also have been attempts to prosecute in Italy but these were not necessarily successful. We also had an arrest warrant issued in Libya. It is difficult to understand smuggling. First, I would like to distinguish between smuggling and trafficking. Traffickers are committing crimes against people. They are torturing and abusing them. Of course, we want them to be held responsible, but as a humanitarian organisation what we really want is for the survivors of trafficking to be cared for. We want them to be granted protection and to have access to the medical care they need, but this is not happening.

The EU is trumpeting the fight against trafficking. Recently, a group of approximately 130 people in Bani Walid escaped from the hands of traffickers during Ramadan. The went to a mosque and the community in Bani Walid protected them. The response of the authorities was to send the survivors to detention centres in Tripoli. This shows how humanitarian messages are being corrupted. States are paying lip service to saving lives and to humanitarian assistance. This is very problematic. Also, NGOs are being corrupted in trying to humanise detention centres so that it becomes more palatable for us to accept that people are sent to detention centres. NGOs should intervene based on the needs of people and not on the political will of a country, but this is what is happening, unfortunately.

I am unable to respond to the question on Yemen.