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In mid-February, round 300 migrants were intercepted at sea by the Libyan coast guard and transferred to a detention center at Sharah Zawiya, in the south of Libya's capital Tripoli. The center has been open for at least a year. Recently, it has been taken under the control of the UN-backed government and has become accessible to the IOM.

Is thecenter at Sharah Zawiya a hidden detention center, a transit center, or acenter for inquiry? These are the questions that many Libyan observersare now asking themselves. As the IOM has recently gained access to the center, InfoMigrants set out to find out a bit more about what might be going on in the center itself.

TheInternational Organization for Migration (IOM) told InfoMigrants that manybelieve the center is a place of transit. Migrants are intercepted at sea andsent to this structure before undergoing an interview and then being sent to anofficial detention center.

"In theory," clarified the IOM, "migrants are not meant to stay there longer than 48 hours."

'I stayed therefor more than three months'

However,several migrants who have been in contact with InfoMigrants claim to have spentmuch more than two days in the center. They also say they have never been interviewed, so it turns into more of a de facto detention center. "I stayed at least three months there last summer,before I finally managed to escape," said Ali, an 18-year-old from Guinea whois still living in Libya. "During the whole time I was there, they didnt askme one question."

Aliexplained that when he arrived, the guards would strip the migrants. "They tookeverything we had, especially our telephones and our money." Ibrahim, anotheryoung man from Guinea, who is 17-years-old and also managed to escape thecenter last weekend, soon after being brought there, tells a similar story. "Theyforced me to give them my telephone and the 100 I had on me," he sighs.

Ali saysthat the Libyans demand a ransom from those wishing to leave the center. Sumscan go up to around 3,000 dinars (or about 1,950), he says. "A man, anAfrican, he brought telephones so that we could contact our families and wecould ask them for money. Another man, an Arab, would then pick up the moneythat they demanded." Ali lists the frequent blows migrants suffered "for noreason" and the rationing of food within the center. "There would be a tiny bitof bread between three people each morning and a plate of pasta at about six inthe evening."

Accordingto InfoMigrants' research, the center itself opened about a year ago and wasclosed down temporarily for a few months at the end of 2019. It then re-openedlast week to house the 300 intercepted migrants. Apparently a change in themanagement at the center was the cause of the temporary closure.

Have therebeen changes to the organization?

So did thechange in the management result in a change in the way the center functions?Ali explains that he managed to escape sometime around October, after threemonths of detention. He was helped in his escape, he says, by the old guard atthe center. "The Libyans who were running the center then told us we shouldleave because a new boss was arriving. The old boss and the new one didn'tagree; things got so bad that their teams were shooting at each other as we allescaped."

The IOMsays that it wasnt authorized to enter the center until last week. "Previously,the place was run by the Ministry of the Interior, but recently, the DCIM (Thedepartment responsible for the fight against illegal migration) has retakencontrol," IOM told InfoMigrants.

Ibrahimsays that he wasn't asked for money before being allowed to leave. The peoplewho were intercepted at sea on February 18, were transferred, however, to thedetention center at Zawia on Saturday where a ransom from 2,000 dinars or1,300 was asked of every person who wanted to leave.

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Libya: What is really going on in an 'inquiry center' in Tripoli? - InfoMigrants