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The collapse of Libya's government and economy not only changed the equations for migrants, it also created incentives for locals to facilitate their migration to Europe by acting as human traffickers, facing the risks for the promise of incomes they couldn't get otherwise. Local militias, eager for income to fund the continuing struggle for power, joined this game as well.Against these traffickers and the steady flow of migrants, VICE News found that the Libyan coast guard feels woefully mismatched. Visiting a coast guard station in Garaboulli, just outside of the militia-held capital of Tripoli, they witnessed footage of under-funded sailors in shoddy, small boats trying to save as many migrants as they could from damaged boats as drowned bodies bob in the distance. Soon after their visit, the coast guard had to suspend rescue operations for lack of resources.Those migrants the Libyan coast guard did manage to rescue were transferred to any of the country's 22 detention centers. The two VICE News visited in Misrata and Zawiyah, just outside of Tripoli, were overcrowded and underfunded, full of migrants from the Middle East and Africa who spoke of rampant abuses and uncertain fates. VICE News could not confirm allegations of beatings and killings (a local detention center director instead claimed that his facility was doing quite well considering the lack of resources), but noted that Human Rights Watch reports have documented corruption-related abuses of prisoners in these centers. The fact that Libya is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention does mean that there are very few legal grounds in the nation to protect such migrants and refugees from unfair conditions like this.
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