INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightMSF SeaImage caption
The cargo ship has been docked in Libya for eight days
Dozens of
increasingly desperate migrants rescued by a cargo ship in the Mediterranean have been refusing to leave after it docked in a Libyan port
Some told journalists they would rather die than be forced to disembark in Libya where they say they were held captive and tortured by
smugglers.The ship brought them to Misrata on 10 November after picking them up from a boat off Libya's western coast.They are said to be
from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Fourteen people including unaccompanied children and a mother and baby left the ship on Wednesday for official detention centres in Libya
but, according to Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera, 77 migrants remained on board on Sunday
MSF aid workers have been treating burns and "witnessing the despair" among those still aboard the ship.The migrants were picked up by a
Panamanian-flagged cargo ship, the Nivin, on 8 November.According to a UN statement quoted by AFP news agency, they are from Ethiopia,
Eritrea, South Sudan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia."How come you want me to leave the ship and stay in Libya" Sudanese migrant Biktor,
17, asked when speaking to Reuters news agency earlier in the week
"We agree to go to any place but not Libya."Biktor said his brother and friend had both died at the hands of smugglers in Bani Walid, a
smuggling centre south of Tripoli.Image:Libya migration: 'Their dead infants floating beside them'Other migrants told al-Jazeera they had
thought they would be taken to Malta when they boarded the cargo ship."All people are saying now we don't want to go outside until we die
here," said Kai, 18, from South Sudan.The campaign group Amnesty International said on Friday the people rescued should not be "forced to
disembark to be taken to a Libyan detention centre where they could face torture and other abuse"."Under international law, no-one should be
sent to a place where their life is at risk," Amnesty added
Libya is a major transit centre for smugglers attempting to take undocumented migrants to Europe
