“Save Samia,” an initiative launched by the “Libyan Crimes Watch” organization, in cooperation with 42 Libyan organizations, in a joint statement calling on authorities to work for the freedom of the minor Yemeni girl “Samia” after she was kidnapped in Tripoli.
The joint statement stated that Samia, who has been living in Libya since the beginning of 2017, with her mother, and was among those registered and covered by the protection of the UNHCR, was kidnapped while she was with her mother on the morning of June 11, in a market where she was selling some products in the Karimiya area, south of Tripoli.
Eyewitnesses confirmed to Samia’s mother that gunmen in military uniforms took her in a car to an unknown location.
Although the mother filed a complaint in one of the security centers, no one contacted her, and the statement confirmed that the UNHCR had a role in the fate of her daughter, as she was kidnapped in early 2019 by armed men at her place of residence in the old city in the center of the capital, Tripoli. UNHCR and UNICEF concerned with the protection of children in Samia’s place and status, no real assistance was provided to protect her, for example, changing her place of residence.
The statement held the Libyan authorities responsible for the fact that the minor is present in Libya, in addition to the High Commissioner for Refugees, which did not take any real measures to protect Samia before or report its inability, to allow the intervention of other parties, in addition to UNICEF, which knows well the location of the victim for all these years.
The statement did not stop at this point, but called on the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior to quickly look into issues of detention of minors, and that children and women are not detained with adults, saying that men mustn’t guard women in detentions, calling on the European Union mission to open a comprehensive investigation into protection offices and the role of international organizations that support them in general.
