Libya becoming new haven for Arab refugees

Syrian refugees at a camp in Turkey As Libya slowly but steadily picks itself up from a bloody civil war that saw the end of a 43-year-long dictatorship and thousands killed, Arab refugees from other war-torn nations are seeing the country as a new escape.
The UK's The Daily Telegraph and Russian news agency RT have reported that thousands of Syrians and Gazans are seeing Libya as a gateway to a better life
Israel’s blockade of Gaza has left thousands jobless with two in three locals living in poverty. The situation is so desperate that Libya is seen as a land of opportunity by over 5,000 Palestinians.
­Thousands of desperate and unemployed Gazans hope that the new Libya can offer them respite from the hardships of war on their doorstep.
“We don’t have any source of income. Prisoners are in better conditions than us. That’s why people want to run away from here,” Sami Ed, an unemployed Gazan, told RT’s Paula Slier.
Thousand-long hopeful queues are vying to get into the battered North African country - and 5,000 have already registered to work.
“I am happy to do any type of work there, it doesn’t make a difference, just to get some income so my children can survive,” another jobless Gazan, Yasser Salman, explained to RT.
The United Nations puts unemployment in Gaza at 45 per cent. Two in three Gazans live in poverty, and every year, the Ministry of Labour says another 30,000 people join the ranks of the jobless.
Ever since Israel imposed a siege on Gaza nearly five years ago, the private sector has all but ground to a halt.
“The economy in Gaza is dependent on Israel. It’s the way Israel set it up,” Saker Abu Hein, Hamas’ Assistant Minister for Labor, explained to RT. “All the materials we need for industry and construction have to come from Israel, through Israeli ports and airports. We have no direct relationship with the outside world.”
Nael al Keishawy was a painter and once earned about US $30 a day – enough for his family to survive on.
But has hasn’t been able to cross the border for seven years, and with no work this side, his children often go to bed hungry.
He was one of the first to sign up when a call went out for people interested in going to Libya.
“I don’t care if it’s Libya or not. I’m ready to go to Mars for the sake of getting food for my children. I can’t give them more than 20 cents a day to survive on. Can you imagine that?” he asks.
Hamas says Israel promised to lift the blockade on Gaza as part of a recent prisoner exchange that freed Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for five years.
But Israel says it made no such promise.
“Israel still controls the trade, sea, air. People in Gaza are not allowed to go or to trade freely with the outside world. Israel is the main cause for the siege in Gaza. Israel’s government did not deny that,” economic analyst Omar Shaban told RT.
Israel says the siege is for security reasons and is afraid that materials like cement and steel could be used to build weapons and military fortifications.
RT’s Paula Slier says the recent flare-up of violence between Israel and Gaza has done little to ease the situation. On the contrary, many now fear that, far from lifting the siege, Israel will tighten it.
And as long as the blockade remains in place, there is little hope for an improvement in the lives of Gazans and the flood of economic migrants seeking work in Libya – and elsewhere – is likely to continue.
Meanwhile, buses from Damascus, crammed with Syrian families, are arriving daily into the east Libyan city of Benghazi.
"Up to 4,000 Syrian families have sought refuge in Libya in the last weeks, and the numbers are increasing every day" said Dr Mohammed Jammal, a Syrian community leader in the city. "The buses arrive full and go back empty. There used to be two a week, but now there are two a day."
The journey is a gruelling four and half days of travel, crossing first into Jordan, across the Suez Canal, through Egypt, and then down the long road to Benghazi.
Bealeaguered refugees claim this was preferable to staying in neighbouring countries where they still felt unsafe. Many of the escaping families are opponents to the reign of President Bashar Al-Assad, and fear persecution in Lebanon, whose government remains an ally of the Syrian regime, or even Turkey and Jordan by infiltrating Syrian intelligence officials.
"Libya is free now. There is no secret police to watch you move," said a refugee who nonetheless remained too fearful to give his real name.
Most of the families are escaping the increasing violence and bloodshed in the Syrian city of Homs and other increasingly restive parts of the country. Ahmed, who spoke to The Daily Telegraph using a pseudonym, arrived in Benghazi four days before from Homs. Exhausted, and still terrified, he described his family's harrowing ordeal.
He and his wife, four daughters and two-year-old son had lived on a street that was the dividing line between neighbourhoods of the Sunni and Alawite ethnic sects. For three months they had watched the tensions between the groups grow and violence begin to unfold around them. In the last month, as sectarian attacks increased, it had become too dangerous to leave the home.
"The situation is very bad in Homs between Sunni and Alawite groups. They are all fighting now. Shia gangs break into cars or set them on fire to the vehicles and blame it on the Alawite. The security forces encourage this," said Ahmed. "It is war. There were six tanks on my street. Sometimes we could not go outside for days because of the fighting. I would wait until there was a lull to go out for supplies, or until the fighting in the next neighbourhood was so bad that it diverted attention."
When Ahmed's uncle was killed by a mortar as he was out buying bread, the family decided to leave. "We waited more than a month to get the passports and had to pay bribes at the immigration office," he said. "Nearly everyone I spoke to in Homs is talking about getting out. We left our home, our car, everything."
Prior to the Libyan civil war thousands of Syrians had worked in the country. The Libyan Red Crescent estimates that 12,000 Syrians were in the country at the start of the Libyan uprising. "Many left but now they are returning, and bringing their families with them, " said Ziad al Dresi, a refugee coordinator for the Libyan Red Crescent.
Syrian community organiser Jammal said he had used money donated by Libyan sympathisers and Syrians living in Libya to rent flats to house many of the families. But as the numbers increase this was becoming increasingly difficult. "In the last ten days we have had problems finding housing," said Jammal.
The nascent Libyan government, who last month was the first to recognise the umbrella opposition to Assad's regime the Syrian National Council, has said it will host Syrian refugees. Working with UNHCR, the United Nations body for refugees, Libyan Red Crescent workers made ready temporary homes in its Benghazi refugee camp, which already hosts 120,000 refugees from the Libyan war.
"We have 26 Syrian families that are being sent here," said camp manager Ibrahim al Asfour. "And we expect many more".