In accordance with Section 5 (g) of its Guidelines, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya makes accessible a narrative summary of reasons for the listing for individuals and entities included in the sanctions list.
Listed pursuant to paragraph 22(a) of resolution 1970 (2011); paragraph 4(a) of resolution 2174 (2014); paragraph 11(a) of resolution 2213 (2015).
Ermias Alem is extensively documented by multiple reliable sources, including criminal investigations, identifying him as one of the most important sub-Saharan actors involved in the illicit trafficking of migrants in Libya. Ermias Alem is a leader of a transnational network responsible for trafficking and smuggling tens of thousands of migrants, mainly from the Horn of Africa to the coast of Libya and onwards to destination countries in Europe and the United States. He has armed men at his disposal, as well as warehouses and detention camps where serious human rights abuses are reportedly being committed against migrants. He works in close cooperation with Libyan smuggling networks like that of Mus’ab Omar, and he is considered their ‘Eastern supply chain’. His network stretches from Sudan to the coast of Libya and to Europe (Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom) and the United States. Alem controls private detention camps around the Libyan northwest coast where migrants are detained, and where serious abuses against migrants have taken place. From these camps, migrants are transported to Sabratha or Zawiya. In recent years, Alem has organised countless perilous journeys across the sea, exposing migrants (including numerous minors) to the risk of death. The Court of Palermo (Italy) issued arrest warrants in 2015 against Ermias Alem in relation to the smuggling of thousands of migrants under inhumane circumstances, including the shipwrecking on 13 October 2013 near Lampedusa in which 266 people died.