Only 'prisons' in Libya - UNHCR (2)

(ANSA) - Brussels, August 4 - UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) special envoy for the Central Mediterranean route Vincent Cochetel told ANSA that migrant detention centres and camps in Libya are "just prisons, some controlled by the authorities, some by militants and traffickers" with "terrible conditions" to which all migrants who disembark on the Libyan coasts are subjected.
    "We can hope that one day there will be decent and open centres, but now they don't exist," Cochetel said.
    Cochetel also told ANSA that the Italian justice system must decide the fate of seized migrant rescue ship Iuventa, "based on the facts".
    Italian authorities seized the Iuventa, a Dutch-flagged ship operated by German NGO Jugend Rettet, this week after the Trapani prosecutor's office said its investigation into NGOs involved in migrant rescue operations found that traffickers had twice accompanied migrants as they boarded the ship.