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. During her time in Tripoli, she heard harrowing accounts from detainees who have endured ill-treatment and extreme abuse, including sexual violence, forced labor and extortion.
In an open letter addressed to European leaders, and to be published on Thursday 7 September, Dr Liu strongly denounces their determination to block people in Libya at all costs, as well as their complicity in the suffering of thousands of men, women and children.
When
11:00 am
Thursday, 7 September 2017
Where
Résidence Palace – International Press Center
155, rue de la Loi – Blok C
1040 Brussels
Belgium
Who
Dr Joanne Liu, International President of MSF
Arjan Hehenkamp, General Director of MSF
Jan Peter Stellema, Operational Advisor of MSF
Topics to be discussed
European States’ complicity in a detention network which has become a thriving enterprise of kidnapping, torture and extortion
The need for an end to the horrific abuse endured by those detained
The criminalisation of those who seek to help people on the move and the continuing externalisation of European borders in an effort to ensure refugees and migrants are kept far from European shores
Contact
Christof Godderis
Press Officer, Médecins Sans Frontières
+32 475 40 60 76
[email protected]
