Migrant Center Bombed in Libya; U.N.: Airstrike in Libya on the Level of a War Crime; Inspectors Find Extreme Overcrowding in U.S. Migrant Centers
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: From an air strike at a migrant center east of Libya's capital.</s>OTHMAN MUSA, NIGERIAN MIGRANT: I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go.</s>BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Millions stuck in limbo, nowhere to go, nowhere to go back to, at every turn under attack. Whether it's being bombed in Libya, trapped as sex slaves in Iraq or enduring squalid conditions in America. This hour we are connecting you to people running for their lives, often fleeing danger with some incredible CNN reporting. While that is not all. Give us justice or you won't have peace. Ethiopians rioting in Israel we're in Tel Aviv to find out what is going on. And --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES: Shame on you. Shame on you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last December Marshae Jones who was five months pregnant started a fight with another woman in this parking lot. Authorities say Ebony Jemison shot an unarmed Jones hitting her in the abdomen killing her unborn baby.</s>ANDERSON: Well she didn't pull the trigger, but she could go to jail. The full story is just ahead. Good evening, folks. It's 5:00 p.m. in Tripoli, 7:00 at night here in Abu Dhabi, 11:00 a.m. in D.C. Most of all, it is time to act. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. Now no ifs, no buts, it looks like a war crime. That is how the U.N. describes an attack on a migrant center near Libya's capital. Officially more than 40 people were killed but with so many more wounded, that number could rise. Here's what we know happened.</s>ANDERSON (voice-over): An attack on innocent civilians in the dead of the night. Emergency workers struggling to identify victims and body parts in the rubble of an air strike. Parts of the Tajoura migrant's detention center were brought to the ground. Many inside had no chance. Those who did survive rushed to recover their few possessions. The center held at least 600 men, women and children from other countries. Refugees and migrants who'd fled other horrors, violence, persecution and economic repression in the search for a better life.</s>OTHMAN MUSA, NIGERIAN MIGRANT: All what we know is what we want U.N. to help people out of this place before this place is dangerous. There're some people that are stranded here, they don't know what to do. They don't know where to go.</s>ANDERSON: The U.N. says, there needs be more than just condemnation. A full independent investigation to determine how and why this happened. To bring those responsible to account. No one has yet claimed responsibility. But the U.N. backed government in Tripoli is blaming Khalifa Haftar. A renegade general whose forces have been fighting for control of the capital for more than a year. But the victims here had no part to play in the battle. And yet they paid the ultimate price.</s>ANDERSON: I want to take you back to the horrifying moments right after that strike hit to inside the detention center. Here's what it was like for one 16-year-old boy.</s>MIGRANT: Oh my God. It's a terrible moment that happened three minutes, dear.</s>SALLY HAYDEN, JOURNALIST: It was close to you? Was anyone hurt?</s>MIGRANT: all the windows and doors are broken</s>HAYDEN: OK, praying for you.</s>MIGRANT: Oh my God.</s>HAYDEN: I don't actually know how he is. The last time that I heard from him was about 5:00 a.m. this morning. But I've been talking to other people here in Tajoura and they are all just completely devastated. One said that he had to help collect the body parts of other people that he knew and I think morale is just so low they almost don't want to talk about it anymore.</s>ANDERSON: I know you've been in touch with people in the center and centers like this one for months. What have they been telling you, Sally? Him</s>HAYDEN: They've been calling for evacuation. I've been in touch with dozens of detainees who are across Libya since last August. And that entire time they've been calling for evacuation. They're saying that they're not safe, that they need to be taken to a safe country. Certainly since the conflict broke out in April, they have been saying that they really, really need to get out of there, that something like this was always going to happen.</s>ANDERSON: I know that you've had text messages, as I understand it, from a number of migrants. Let's just bring up one of those. We don't get any solution for drinking water. And then you go on, how long without water. Almost a month. We're drinking salty water for washing clothes. It's making people sick you said. We don't have a choice. And I know you've had other text messages, just describing the sort of conditions these men and women are living under. Who are they, Sally, and where are they from?</s>HAYDEN: So, the people that I met with are many people who would count as refugees. They fled wars or dictatorships in countries like Eritrea, like Somalia, like Darfur and Sudan. And I think it's worth pointing out as well that a lot of the photos you see might be of men but there are women and there are also children. From what I know there are more than a thousand underage people in detention centers right now. And there also living in the middle of this conflict.</s>ANDERSON: What do they know about this conflict that's going on around them?</s>HAYDEN: I mean they know a lot because their life essentially depends on it. They knew when Haftar declared that he was going to advance on Tripoli. They know which kind of places where he's fighting in. Also I think it's worth saying that a lot of the detention centers are actually being run by militias. So there are fighters who are coming in, and in some there are weapons being stored in them and that's putting the migrants in huge danger because they know that they are very vulnerable as targets as well.</s>ANDERSON: What sort of help are they getting, if any? Who as far as you understand it are running these detention centers?</s>HAYDEN: The detention centers are officially being run by the department for combatting illegal migration, which is associated with the GNA, the government in Tripoli. But I mean, effectively, like I said, they are being run by different militias. Some are in areas that are controlled by Haftar's forces and some are in areas being controlled by GNA aligned forces. And, yes, effectively they are just trapped in the middle of that.</s>ANDERSON: Sally, your reporting is incredibly important. Sally is reporting oftentimes on social media, flushing out the conditions that these people fleeing oft times for their lives are enduring in these camps as we now understand, losing their lives overnight certainly in an attack. Sally, good to have you on. Thank you for that. At this hour the International Organization for Migration leading the charge on condemning this air strike. They are calling for a full and independent investigation. They want those found responsible to be held accountable. And they along with other U.N. agencies are dispatching medical and other response teams to the area. That's, of course, if they are given appropriate clearance from Libyan authorities. Let's bring in someone in charge of the IOM. Its chief of staff, Eugenio Ambrosi. Joining us now live out of Geneva. We understand these detention centers are officially run by the department at the Tripoli, the U.N. backed Tripoli government. But it's clear as Sally was pointing out that quite frankly that's not really who they are run by. The U.N. backed Tripoli government have blamed this attack on General Haftar. Do you have any evidence to support that claim?</s>EUGENIO AMBROSI, CHIEF OF STAFF, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION: No, we don't have any evidence as to who is responsible for this heinous attack. Which is the reason why we don't side with the</s>ANDERSON: Sure. Let me just sweep one thing up here. You said it is unconscionable that civilians are being targeted. Is it clear whether this was a targeted attack, or horrifyingly collateral damage in what is this incredibly messy conflict? Is that clear specifically?</s>AMBROSI: It might not be absolutely proven, but I think it is clear that it was very well known that that detention center was in that area. I understand that in the vicinity of the detention center there was some military camps or military installation of the GNA which presumably was the likely target of this action. But the fact that the detention center was there was definitely known. It is known and therefore, we continue to consider it unconscionable that area had been targeted because of the likelihood of civilian collateral damage was very high and that is exactly what has happened.</s>ANDERSON: Our viewers are looking at a statement from the U.N. commissioner -- High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, says and I quote her. I have repeatedly called for the closure of all migrant detention centers in Libya, where U.N. human rights staff have documented severe overcrowding, torture, ill-treatment, forced labor, rape and acute malnutrition amongst other serious human rights violations. As if we needed to describe any further human rights violations. There will likely, sir, be viewed watching tonight, asking why people continue to risk their lives. Whatever their circumstances back home, trying to transit through such a dangerous place as Libya is today. If this is what they can expect how would you respond to those concerns?</s>AMBROSI: Well, I think the first consideration is that in many cases, what they leave appears -- at least to them at the moment of being even worse than what they might find underway towards north and towards the coast of Libya. Obviously, a lot of people are considering that well they might try their luck. What I'm leaving behind is horrible, maybe what I find may be equally horrible and maybe not. So why not try? I think what all this show, by the way, is that the reason why people take this risk might be so compelling and so strong that there cannot just be brushed aside or handled with very superficial measure that don't really tackle the root causes. And I think another point that's very important is that this again shows that Libya is not a safe place for migrants and refugees. Libya is not a safe place to return, migrants and refugees that might be rescued or intercepted in the Mediterranean. And that therefore something has to change in the way the international community handles this situation, otherwise --</s>ANDERSON: I want to put that to you. Let's just discuss that. A German captain arrested after docking at an Italian port defying orders from Rome. She had had picked up dozens of people stranded off the Libyan coast. She was released without charge earlier today. Quite a controversial figure. Some calling hear villain. Others calling her a hero. Even fundraising over a million dollars for her. She of course, is one of the first to test Italy's new hardline migrant policy refusing to accept these ships, turning them back and finding those that do try and dock tens of thousands of dollars. I want to get your sense and your message to the international community about human impact of this anti-migration policy.</s>AMBROSI: Well, first of all for us and we've been repeating this since the beginning of this new float with the Mediterranean back to 2013. Saving life is a top priority not just of NGO or just of the U.N. agency, but of the whole international community. There has to be a top priority. In addition to that, saving lives, search-and-rescue operation are regulated by international law and we call every member of the international community to abide by the rules of international law that everybody has subscribed. As for the specific case, I will not enter into the discussion that is happening in Italy on the specific case, except to say, that obviously, the issue of saving lives in the Mediterranean and offering proper disembarkation to dock safe and then proper processing according to their specific needs is not just the responsibility of just one given country that for geographical reason happens to be in that specific location. But this is the responsibility of the whole on the European Union. The whole of the European Union has to come together to find a proper solution and a proper sharing of the responsibility of what is happening in the Mediterranean. It's a shared space. It's a shared sea and has to be a shared solution what is brought forward.</s>ANDERSON: Eugenio Ambrosi, Chief of Staff at the IOM. It is extremely valuable to have you on the show tonight. Thank you, sir. And we started this part of the show with some incredibly distressing pictures as migrants in a detention center in Libya lose their lives from a bombing attack. Whether that was a targeted attack or whether that attack was meant to target another facility close by, it doesn't really matter, does it? People are losing their lives. And this is a global problem, the problem of migration and those trying to flee one awful situation and just finding themselves under attack in another. CNN covering it everywhere it happens. Refugees and migrants' journeys can be incredibly harrowing and even when they think they have reached safety, oft times they remain vulnerable. Many, especially women, become victims of human trafficking. CNN's Arwa Damon recently met one such woman. Here is part of her story.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nadia's sentences reverberate with trauma. She survived the ISIS onslaught in Sinjar. Was spared the fate of her fellow Yazidi sex slaves. Only to find herself trapped in a similar nightmare. She says she came to Baghdad with a man she trusted who told her he knew a Parliamentarian who could help her family apply for asylum in the</s>U.S. NADIA (text): He greeted me, I said "Hi uncle". They looked at each other and smiled. He said, "you are mine now".</s>ANDERSON: Fleeing ISIS only to find herself a sex slave. More of Arwa's reporting here on CNN.com. Let's just pause for a moment and turn to the stories of what people doing the exact same thing, that is fleeing one life for another. But half a world away. Seeking a better life in the United States. Government inspectors warn that centers where thousands are being held are ticking time bombs. Inspectors visited several centers along the southern border of the U.S. in Manjula. They took these pictures. These images really tell the story. You can see people crammed in sometimes to the point where they cannot sit down. Some facilities didn't provide equate clothes or showers. CNN's Nick Valencia has seen some of these squalid conditions for himself. Nick joining us from El Paso in Texas. And I know, Nick, that you've gotten an exclusive firsthand account from a border patrol agent on exactly what is going on down there. What did you learn?</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Becky. I want to start first by addressing this inspector general photos. They are disturbing. And there's no denying the facts. The kinds of conditions that migrants are being held in. In some cases in this report you have 80 migrants to a cell that's only supposed to hold 30 to 40 people. There's a pervasive health risk. There's a risk to the safety, not just to the migrants, but also according to the inspector general, to the agents that are in these facilities. They relay a story about a potential for a kind of an uprising where migrants were stuffing the toilets with mylar blankets and socks just to get a little brief -- to be able to get out of these cells just briefly. Refusing to go back in. And these agents had to bring in a special force saying that they would use force if migrants didn't go back in these cells. This Inspector General report, Becky, focused on the Rio Grande Valley. But conditions here in El Paso are just as bad. This according to a veteran El Paso border patrol agent who agreed to talk to us on camera if we conceal their identity. They say they decided to go on camera because they're tired of seeing the conditions in these facilities. Saying enough is enough.</s>VALENCIA: What do you say to leaders who are saying migrants are getting basic human rights?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basic human rights are toilet paper. Water from the sink. Wearing the same clothing for days. I remember when there used to be a processing center. We used to have -- especially in winter -- we use to have these blankets. Ten different aliens we use the same blanket. We recycle them. We put them in a bag and they won't get washed.</s>VALENCIA: This veteran agent went on to tell me that it was just a few nights ago they heard a supervisor joking about dead migrants. Remember that viral photo they were joking about the deaths of migrant father and 2- year-old. Also going on to say that they wishing they could use their vehicle to run over migrants. These are very serious allegations, Becky. We pose them to customs and border protection and while they did not directly respond to these allegations, they did say they take them seriously and handed them over to the office of the inspector general -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Thank you, Nick. Before we move on, I just want to share what some of the American media are saying about these images that Nick has been speaking to. Shameful reads the headline of the "New York Daily News". "The Dallas Morning News" warns of that ticking time bomb. And "The New York Times" writes, squaw pervasive in the detention centers. With the migrant crisis playing out at the border, well it's all about Fourth of July in Washington. Logon to our website and find out about controversy over Donald Trump's planned holiday extravaganza. That is at CNN.com. Still to come this hour, things you may not expect to see in the heart of Tel Aviv. Demonstrators are furious over the police shooting of an Ethiopian-Israeli teen and they are gearing up for a third night of nationwide protests. Plus, we are just hours away from seeing who the U.S. will play in the women's World Cup final. We'll look at the highlights of yesterday's match and at today's big one and going viral. Actor Jason Statham here showing off his skills. You may have seen this on the social media feed. This is called the bottle cap challenge. We'll show you who else is trying it out.