Secular Café: Libyans exploiting Syrian refugees?

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Libyans exploiting Syrian refugees? Sep 22nd 2012, 14:24 This is very sad. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19660293 Quote: Hard living conditions for Syrian refugees in Libya are forcing some families to marry off their daughters to wealthy local men. Syrians say Libyans often knock at their doors asking for especially underage girls, as BBC Arabic's Ahmed Maher reports from Benghazi. Ahmed Atrash is among hundreds of Syrian refugees in the country's second largest city, Benghazi. He and his family have fled the raging war back home. He says he would rather see Syrians beg in the street than married off to rich Libyans for money, lamenting that many were targeting underage Syrian girls. "We arrived in Benghazi two months ago and last month a Libyan man knocked at my door and asked whether I had a daughter or a sister to marry in return for money. I laughed and told him yes, I do have a two-year-old daughter," he told BBC Arabic TV... ...The father-of-two is appalled that penniless Syrian families are being forced to sell off their daughters. "They are exploiting our financial distress. Many families here cannot provide even a square meal for their children." An official from the self-styled Syrian Revolutionary Union (SRU) said Libyan men often ask them to direct them to Syrian families, hoping to marry girls. One Libyan man told me: "Syrian girls are beautiful." Another pointed out that to marry a Libyan woman, her family would ask for a dowry of $19,000, while Syrians would only seek a few hundred dollars. There are neither refugee camps for Syrians nor an organised government scheme to host them, unlike in other Arab and Muslim countries, chiefly Turkey and Jordan. They are scattered across several Libyan cities and there are no official statistics on their numbers in the North African country... ..."There is nothing wrong in such marriages if the men are financially able, whether they are single or married," said Sheikh Ashraf Al-Aqrabi, Imam of the Garyounis Mosque. "This is a religious duty as long as it is done by mutual consent. We must encourage Libyans to help protect such vulnerable families, because they might be forced into prostitution." But Mr Atrash doesn't agree. "This is modern-day slavery," he said angrily. "Using the word marriage is just a euphemism."

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