26 May 2011
By George Fominyen
DAKAR (AlertNet) – Thousands of Chadian migrants fleeing Libya’s conflict are arriving in droves in northern Chad, but they lack food, water and medical assistance in the desert villages they pass through on their way home, aid agencies say.
Over 40,000 Chadians who had been working in Libya have returned since violence erupted in the north-African country in February, and many arrive weak and sick after the journey across the desert that takes some three weeks under harsh conditions.
“Most are traveling on top of trucks under the scorching Sahara sun with limited access to water,” Felix Leger, country director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC)in Chad, said in a statement.
“By the time they arrive in Chad, many are dehydrated, suffering from heat stroke, hungry and exhausted.”
Authorities in Chad estimate that over 300,000 Chadians lived in eastern and western Libya for years where they worked – like other sub-Saharan African migrants – mainly as low-paid laborers in the oil industry, agriculture and construction, or as domestic servants.
Many Chadians and other sub-Saharan workers say that when Libyan unrest started they were targeted, and accused of being mercenaries, by supporters of the rebels trying to oust long-serving Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The influx of returnees is straining locals in small and remote villages near the border with Libya.
WATER TENSIONS
Tension over water access is mounting between villagers and migrants who stay three to four days to rest, convalesce, or allow repair time for trucks taking them to a main town northern-Chad town, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement after staff visited Zouarke village, near the Chadian border with Niger.
"The village is unable to cope with providing water from a 36-meter deep well for more than 500 migrants at any one time," said IOM's assessment team leader, Craig Murphy.
Migrants have to queue for five hours to fill a single jerrycan and there have been scuffles at the water point, IOM said.
Some migrants have measles and are quarantined in the open under trees just a few hundred meters from the rest of the migrant population, sleeping near trucks
The organization plans to establish a transit station in the village which is a mid-way point in the journey from southern Libya to Faya Largeau in northern Chad, via Niger – a journey avoiding landmines along the Aouzou strip Strip that separates Libya and Chad, and which the two countries fought over in the 1970s and 1980s.
However, conditions are also difficult at Faya Largeau, which has a transit center to shelter women and children and other vulnerable returnees.
“The hospital is buckling under the pressure of treating so many sick people,” says IRC’s Leger. “Many of the arrivals are also traumatized by the violence they witnessed or experienced,” he added.
Ten IRC aid workers have been dispatched to the town, including five medical staff providing support at the overburdened hospital.
“Our priority is to support the hospital staff in Faya with medical expertise. The health situation is currently critical and the hospital cannot cope,” Leger said.
Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/chads-migrants-fleeing-libya-need-more-help-aid-groups.
By George Fominyen
DAKAR (AlertNet) – Thousands of Chadian migrants fleeing Libya’s conflict are arriving in droves in northern Chad, but they lack food, water and medical assistance in the desert villages they pass through on their way home, aid agencies say.
Over 40,000 Chadians who had been working in Libya have returned since violence erupted in the north-African country in February, and many arrive weak and sick after the journey across the desert that takes some three weeks under harsh conditions.
“Most are traveling on top of trucks under the scorching Sahara sun with limited access to water,” Felix Leger, country director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC)in Chad, said in a statement.
“By the time they arrive in Chad, many are dehydrated, suffering from heat stroke, hungry and exhausted.”
Authorities in Chad estimate that over 300,000 Chadians lived in eastern and western Libya for years where they worked – like other sub-Saharan African migrants – mainly as low-paid laborers in the oil industry, agriculture and construction, or as domestic servants.
Many Chadians and other sub-Saharan workers say that when Libyan unrest started they were targeted, and accused of being mercenaries, by supporters of the rebels trying to oust long-serving Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The influx of returnees is straining locals in small and remote villages near the border with Libya.
WATER TENSIONS
Tension over water access is mounting between villagers and migrants who stay three to four days to rest, convalesce, or allow repair time for trucks taking them to a main town northern-Chad town, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement after staff visited Zouarke village, near the Chadian border with Niger.
"The village is unable to cope with providing water from a 36-meter deep well for more than 500 migrants at any one time," said IOM's assessment team leader, Craig Murphy.
Migrants have to queue for five hours to fill a single jerrycan and there have been scuffles at the water point, IOM said.
Some migrants have measles and are quarantined in the open under trees just a few hundred meters from the rest of the migrant population, sleeping near trucks
The organization plans to establish a transit station in the village which is a mid-way point in the journey from southern Libya to Faya Largeau in northern Chad, via Niger – a journey avoiding landmines along the Aouzou strip Strip that separates Libya and Chad, and which the two countries fought over in the 1970s and 1980s.
However, conditions are also difficult at Faya Largeau, which has a transit center to shelter women and children and other vulnerable returnees.
“The hospital is buckling under the pressure of treating so many sick people,” says IRC’s Leger. “Many of the arrivals are also traumatized by the violence they witnessed or experienced,” he added.
Ten IRC aid workers have been dispatched to the town, including five medical staff providing support at the overburdened hospital.
“Our priority is to support the hospital staff in Faya with medical expertise. The health situation is currently critical and the hospital cannot cope,” Leger said.
Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/chads-migrants-fleeing-libya-need-more-help-aid-groups.
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