Joannes Liu's testimony from Libya | Webclip | English

Dr Joanne Liu, International President of MSF, has just returned from Libya where she visited MSF medical teams working in detention centres and witnessed first-hand the horrific situation of the migrants and refugees detained there. In this video she shares her personal experiences of meeting people in Tripoli where she heard harrowing accounts from detainees who have endured ill-treatment and extreme abuse, including sexual violence, forced labour and extortion.

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Libya Open Letter– Social Media Material

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF207271

Date taken / Date Recorded 06/09/2017 12:00 AM

Country Libya

Commissioning section MSF-BELGIUM

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m41s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 306.61 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist 00:00 Title
Joanne Liu
MSF International President

00:00 --> 00:03
What I saw in Libya, is what I would

00:04 --> 00:10
describe as the incarnation of

00:10 --> 00:13
of human cruelty at its extreme.

00:13 --> 00:16
I was deeply shocked and I remain really shocked

00:17 --> 00:19
MSF has been working

00:19 --> 00:21
in what we called detention centres

00:21 --> 00:23
in Libya for the last year.

00:23 --> 00:28
People for the sole crime

00:28 --> 00:31
of wanting a better life

00:31 --> 00:34
are piled up, parked,

00:34 --> 00:37
in dark rooms with no ventilation

00:37 --> 00:38
30 cm square.

00:39 --> 00:41
Unable even to stretch their legs

00:41 --> 00:42
for days.

00:43 --> 00:44
Starved to illness

00:45 --> 00:47
and then people looking at me

00:47 --> 00:49
with desperation in their eyes

00:49 --> 00:51
and just whispering:

00:51 --> 00:53
- Get me out of here!

00:53 --> 00:55
I have heard stories

00:55 --> 00:57
that will hunt me

00:57 --> 00:59
for days if not years.

00:59 --> 01:02
Stories of a pregnant woman

01:03 --> 01:07
who was forced to stand in the middle of the backyard,

01:07 --> 01:09
on one foot, under the sun,

01:11 --> 01:13
until she fell of exhaustion.

01:13 --> 01:15
And that very same woman told me,

01:15 --> 01:19
she said: - But my story is not the worst.

01:19 --> 01:23
There was a man who was hung with his hands up

01:23 --> 01:26
beaten publicly and then afterwards

01:26 --> 01:29
they reached for his wife who was pregnant

01:29 --> 01:32
and they raped her in a different room.

01:32 --> 01:34
And then she looked at me and she said:

01:34 --> 01:36
- They don't even respect pregnant women.

01:36 --> 01:38
Torture,

01:38 --> 01:39
abuse,

01:39 --> 01:41
humiliation,

01:41 --> 01:42
public punishment.

01:43 --> 01:44
We read them,

01:44 --> 01:46
and just move on.

01:47 --> 01:49
Going to Libya for me

01:49 --> 01:52
put stories in pictures behind those words.

01:53 --> 01:56
And knowing what we know,

01:56 --> 01:58
That we keep

01:59 --> 02:02
building and creating policies,

02:02 --> 02:04
that are trapping individuals

02:04 --> 02:08
in this kind of nightmarish environment.

02:08 --> 02:11
Every nation, every government

02:11 --> 02:16
that is facilitating to send back people to Libya,

02:16 --> 02:20
or to keep them contained in Libya,

02:20 --> 02:25
is complicit to massive, massive

02:26 --> 02:30
abuses on human beings...

02:34 --> 02:36
That's all I can say.

CREDIT
MSF LOGO

Photos from Libya by Guillaume Binet/Myop

Special instructions PLEASE BE AWARE WE HAVE THE RIGH TO SHARE THIS VIDEO WITH EXTERNAL MEDIA.

HOWEVER, THE PICTURES INSIDE ARE STILL UNDER THE COPYRIGHT OF GUILLAUME BINET.

FOR ANY EXTERNAL PUBLICATION (PRINT AND DIGITAL) Please contact Photographer Guillaume Binet ([email protected])