Scathing report

Human rights group Amnesty International (AI) has criticized the European Union for its response to the refugee crisis in North Africa.

A paper published on Tuesday said that some 5,000 refugees were living on Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia in what it called "grim" conditions as a result of violence related to the Arab Spring revolutions.

It said many of them were sub-Saharan Africans who faced racial violence, as fighters for Libya's new government accused them of being mercenaries for fugitive leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The paper called the EU's response to this situation "abysmal," and said that EU justice and home affairs ministers should address resettlement issues when they meet in Brussels on Friday.

Share the burden

AI called on EU member states to open their borders to help bring relief to the thousands of displaced, adding that it was time Europe shouldered some responsibility for the crisis.

"This failure is particularly glaring given that some European countries, by participating in NATO operations in Libya, have been party to the very conflict that has been one of the main causes of the involuntary movement of people," said Nicolas Beger, director at AI's European Institutions Office.

Libya's border regions have acted as a last-ditch assembly point for thousands of refugees fleeing month-long conflicts in a host of countries throughout the region. Faced with harsh desert conditions, many have been forced to sleep in makeshift tents.

One Sudanese refugee told Amnesty: "There is no freedom in Sudan and no dignity here."

Countries such as the United States, Australia and Canada have offered to resettle some of the displaced, but so far only seven EU countries have said they were willing to accept refugees, offering to take in just 700 people.

Amnesty added that around 1,500 people were believed to have died returning to Libya or whilst attempting to flee the continent by boat.

Author: Darren Mara
Editor: Rob Turner