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LIBYA

Musicians flee Libya for ‘right to rap’

A group of rappers who say they had to flee Libya for their art were on their way to Italy on Wednesday after being rescued by a charity boat.

Musicians flee Libya for 'right to rap'
Libyan migrants sleeping aboard the Aquarius. Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP

The self-described musicians were among a group of 17 mostly Libyan men picked up by the Aquarius, a vessel operated by French NGO SOS Mediterranee and international humanitarian organisation Doctors without Borders (MSF), from a fishing boat in distress in waters off the Libyan coast.

“I'm (a) rapper, I do rap music, so I got to get out of Libya,” one of the men, Youssef, told AFP.

“I have to get out of Libya for freedom of speech, you know about that. Libya is a dangerous zone right now for arts…”

Youssef, from the country's second city Benghazi, said he had paid a trafficker he met in a coffee shop in the capital Tripoli to get on the boat.

“So I was talking and someone after I finished talking got me to the side and said 'If you are looking for a trip I can get you one, but it will be expensive'.

“I asked him how much expensive and he said 'like 1,500 (dollars)'. I said I can pay 1,000, you know, stuff like this. So he got my number and he said I will see and come back to you. The next day he called me and said: 'All right someone will come and pick the money up'.”

MSF volunteer Seraina Eldada said the rescued men had been severely dehydrated and exhausted when the Aquarius reached their stricken boat.

“They were very weak, some of them barely conscious,” she said. “But they are all getting stronger now and starting to recover, drinking water.

“Right now we are just trying to figure out what their stories are.”

The rescued men were to be taken to an Italian port although first the Aquarius was taking part in another rescue operation, this time for a fishing boat reported to have some 300 people on board.

More than 95,000 migrants have been rescued in the Mediterranean and taken to Italy since the start of the year, just over a third of them on privately-funded NGO boats.

The organisations say they are saving lives but their operations have been criticised for allegedly encouraging migrants to risk a journey that has claimed at least 2,385 lives so far in 2017.

By Giovanni Grezzi

IMMIGRATION

Three years after Denmark’s infamous ‘jewellery law’ hit world headlines, not a single piece has been confiscated

A controversial law enabling Danish authorities to confiscate valuable items from refugees, known as the ‘jewellery law’, was passed by parliament on January 26th, 2016.

Three years after Denmark’s infamous 'jewellery law' hit world headlines, not a single piece has been confiscated
Asylum seekers arriving at Nyborg in 2015. File photo: Sophia Juliane Lydolph/Scanpix 2015

The legislation allows police to confiscate cash and valuables above 10,000 kroner from arriving migrants and asylum seekers.

Under Ministry of Immigration guidelines, police are told not to take wedding rings or engagement rings and individual officers are left to determine the sentimental value of other items.

Since it came into effect in February 2016, one car and 186,000 kroner in cash have been seized – and no jewellery, news agency Ritzau reported this week.

Those figures have resulted in critics saying the law is more symbolic than practical in purpose.

“We think that, instead of making symbolic restrictions such as this, a new and humane asylum system should be brought in, so people don’t have to flee,” Jacob Mark, parliamentary group leader with the Socialist People’s Party, said to Ritzau.

Rasmus Nordqvist, a political spokesperson with the Alternative party, tweeted that the jewellery law “has shown itself, as expected, to be pure optics.”

“I wish (Danish politics) spent its time on politics that changes and improves the world instead of sending out unpleasant signals,” Nordqvist added.

At the time of its introduction, the law received criticism from international human rights groups including US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Does a rich country like Denmark really need to strip the very assets of these desperate asylum seekers before providing them basic services?” HRW’s executive director Kenneth Roth said in January 2016.

Disapproval could also be found in international media, including in a New York Times editorial and a cartoon published by British paper The Independent, which depicted the Little Mermaid flush with cash and jewellery confiscated from refugees.

Minister for Immigration and Integration Inger Støjberg said she did not see the low number of confiscations as giving weight to criticism of the legislation.

“It is a matter of principal that, if you can provide for yourself, you must do so. That applies to Danes and it also applies to the refugees that come here,” she told Ritzau in a written message.

Støjberg cited low Danish refugee intake figures – 2018 saw the lowest number of arrivals since 2008 – as proof that the jewellery law and the government's overall policy of being strict on immigration was paying off, the news agency writes.

The jewellery law was originally passed by a large parliamentary majority which included the three parties now part of the conservative coalition government, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, and the Social Democrats, the largest party in opposition.

The Danish People’s Party’s spokesperson on immigration, Martin Henriksen, has previously said he wants the law to go further by checking whether asylum seekers have money in foreign bank accounts.

Henriksen’s counterpart with the Social Democrats, Mattias Tesfaye, told Ritzau he was also in favour of that idea.

“I think it’s completely logical, regarding valuables worth over 10,000 kroner, that this should apply whether they are in your back pocket or in a German bank account,” Tesfaye said.

Støjberg said that she did not see this as a realistic option.

“I find it difficult to see how we would be able to check what someone has in a foreign bank account,” she told Ritzau.

READ ALSO: BBC cross-examines Danes on integration policy