Libya's Dark Knights: The vigilantes cracking

down on people smuggling

In the absence of a functioning state, a group of vigilantes have taken action against peoplesmuggling networks

The
Masked Men of Zuwara are trying to restore law and order in Libya (MEE / Karlos Zurutuza)

Karlos Zurutuza-Thursday 3 December 2015

ZUWARA, Libya The sight of masked men inside black pick-up trucks
would be inherently distressing in most places around the world, but this image
brings a sense of reassurance to the residents of Zuwara, Libya's northernmost
city.
Known as the the Masked Men, the group denies it is a militia and insists there is

no religious or political agenda. Rather, the men plan to instill a sense of law and
order in a part of Libya that has been ravaged by smuggling rings and criminal
gangs in recent months.
Once a sleepy coastal town, since this summer Zuwara became a centre of crime
and misery.
While Zuwara has traditionally been a major departure point for migrants of their
way to Italy. The town's 60,000 residents were hardly prepared, when on 27
August, the town woke up to find their white sandy beach littered with nearly 200
corpses after an old wooden boat capsized a few miles off the coast, killing almost
half of the passengers on board.
The Zuwaris dug a mass grave, and marched from the town square to the port to
demand action.
Zuwara cannot be a home for murderers, they chanted in their local Amazigh
language.
It wasn't the first time townspeople had demonstrated against the smugglers, but
the scale of the last tragedy led them to demand that this would be the last.
Despite the groups insistence on privacy, Middle East Eye was able to negotiate
an interview with Ayman al-Kafaz, the Masked Mens commander-in-chief.
Kafaz told MEE that the group was originally set up in January 2013 as the Special
Intervention Squad aimed at tackling any criminal activity, but that the movement
has expanded rapidly over the last two years. Today, the Masked Men say they
have 130-able bodied recruits half of whom are policemen - working in 24-hour
shifts.
The group is officially registered in Tripoli's Ministry of Interior, and that's where,
according to Kafaz, the salaries for the Masked Men are paid.
Since the 2011 overthrow of long-time strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the security
situation has deteriorated sharply. Waring militias now control vast chunks of the
country, with two rival parliaments, Tripoli and Tobruk, vying for power and the
Islamic State group rising up amidst the chaos.
The rule of law has vanished in Libya but it's still in force in Zuwara, Kafaz said.
The commander recalled that since the August incident, the Masked Men have
arrested over 35 people with allegedly links to human-trafficking. While MEE could
not verify if these men were still locked up and could not inspect the conditions

they were being kept in, residents insist that life has become much better since
the crackdown.
Kafaz admitted the situation is far from perfect but he labelled Europe's measures
which have involved trying to stop smuggling ships once they leave Libya - to
tackle the migrants as totally useless.
If Brussels really wants to stop the flow of people it should empower local
authorities on the southern shore of the Mediterranean as well as organisations
as ours. This is the last gate [before Europe] and we're able to control it if we
receive enough support, Kafaz added.
Civil servants like Sadiq Jiash, who works as a local council official, largely support
the arrival of the Masked Men.
Theres no functional government in the country and we realised that we
needed to do something to cope with the growing crisis in our territory, he told
MEE.
Jiash is a civil servant and president of the Zuwaras Emergency Committee, an
organisation set up in April 2014 and run by 35 local volunteers, including doctors,
fire-fighters and members of the local Red Crescent amongst others.
In the case of the migrants, we look for the corpses and aid in the rescue
attempts in full coordination with the local administration, the civil society and the
Masked Men, Jiash said while insisting that he was highly satisfied with the
degree of collaboration between all the sides.

Thousands of people have drowned in the Mediterranean this year (MEE / Karlos
Zurutuza)
Turning the tide
The growing chaos has been allowing smugglers to thrive in Libya and many in
Zuwara had been growing ostentatiously rich on the illicit trade for years. So far
this year, more than 140,000 people have set off to Italy from Libya and Tunisia,
with a significant proportion of people coming through Zuwara. Almost 3,000
people have died trying to make the journey. On Thursday, Italian navy rescue
boats pulled 1,500 migrants from the sea off the coast of Libya in just a few hours.
Gaddafi had the key to control the flux of migrants and eventually used them to
put the pressure on the EU. But everything went out of control after the war [in
2011], Jiash said.
Following Gaddafi's removal, lawlessness set in. While the town has tried to take
matters into its hands previously by arresting alleged troublemakers, Zuwara does
not have a prison.
We organised ourselves to arrest the smugglers and transfer them to
neighbouring Sabrata or Zawiya two neighbouring locations, said Jiash. But
they were soon back in business. Corruption in Libya is rife, you know?

After the catastrophe on the beach though, and with the prospect of EU military
action and possible airstrikes to take out smuggling networks, residents decided
they could stay silent no more.
When 10 days after the boat capsized, the Masked Men appeared on the scene,
residents were desperate for change. The groups first act was to reportedly arrest
about a dozen people deemed to have links with smuggling networks. Instead of
sending them elsewhere, they just created a makeshift prison in Zuwara.
Coping with chaos
The solution is far from ideal - but there are few alternatives. Today, the road that
connects Zuwara with Tripoli remains blocked most of the time due to periodic
clashes that break out between rival militias on the coastal way. The same applies
to the less-travelled road south to the Nafusa Mountains, Libya's main Amazigh
stronghold.
From the town's Red Crescent offices, Ibrahim Atushi, head of the NGO's local
emergency committee, blamed the country's split between two rival centres of
power for the shortage of medicines and other basic supplies. While one
government operates from Tripoli, another is seated some 1,000 kilometres east
in Tobruk.
The roads are blocked so we can hardly cater for the local population and the
3,000 registered foreign workers among us, [who] mostly [are] Sub-Saharans,
Atushi told MEE.
Other than providing medical assistance to locals, the Red Crescent has been
overstretched trying to tackle the migrant and refugee crisis.
We have to register the corpses and conduct DNA tests. We also take pictures of
the clothes to find clues on the whereabouts of the missing, Atushi said.
However, he also pointed out that the number of bodies has diminished
drastically over the last few months thanks to the Masked Men and the work of
civil society.
We cooperate with them [the Masked Men] and they call us every time they find
migrants. They're a group of well-educated local men, many of which even have
university degrees, said Atushi.

Cul-de-sac

Amiri from Nigeria has found himself stuck in Zuwara after the smuggling routes
were choked off (MEE / Karlos Zurutuza)
Although controversial, the crackdown on Zuwara's trafficking network has
seemingly proved effective. In October, MEE was able to spend time on
board Dignity One, one of the Doctors Without Borders vessels rescuing migrants
and refugees in the Mediterranean.
The organisation reports that the majority of the rescues efforts in recent months
have place near Tripoli rather than Zuwara, indicating that fewer migrants are
setting off from there.
The number of boats departing from Zuwara had been significantly low over the
last few months, Dignity One project coordinator Juan Matias said.
Migrants who spoke to MEE said that Zuwara is no longer known as a key
departure point for Europe, but rather a cul-de-sac.
But not everyone is happy about the development. Amiri, a 23-year from Nigeria
told MEE he left his village almost two years ago and had only just gathered the

$500 to jump on a raft to Europe.

I only came to Zuwara because someone told me it was a much safer place to
stay until I left, he said.
Now hes stuck. Amiri says he may brave Libyas perilous roads to travel to
another more lawless part of Libya where smugglers continue to work out in the
open, militias hunt down and arbitrarily detain migrants for ransom and police
officers beat and arrest them. But at least here he says he may have a greater
shot of finally reaching a better life in Europe, and for many others like him its a
risk worth taking.
Posted by Thavam