The spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, expressed his concern about holding women in Government of National Accord’s prisons or excluding women and children from the list of measures to reduce inmates in prisons and detention facilities as precautions taken to reduce the spread of Coronavirus.
Colville said that reports of the release of more than 1,600 prisoners in Libya were welcomed, adding that the UN is concerned that only a small number of women and children have been released, noting that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights does not know the exact number of arrested women as it is estimated that there are 500 women in prison.
The International Organization for Migration voiced its concern regarding immigrants, as information indicated that there are about 1500 detainees in 11 directorates managed by the GNA, which is the lowest number in Libya since October 2019.
IOM confirmed it was necessary to release women, children, the elderly, and the sick, as well as people with special needs, migrants and refugees.
