Frank Okon

Migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya are facing what the United Nations describes as ruthless and systematic human rights violations, including killings, torture, sexual violence and trafficking.

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In a new report covering January 2024 to December 2025, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) details what it calls an “exploitative model” that preys on people in extreme vulnerability. The agency says abuse has become a brutal and normalised reality in Libya.

The findings are based on interviews with nearly 100 migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees from 16 countries across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Many described abduction, arbitrary detention and severe physical and sexual abuse.

One Eritrean woman said she was held for six weeks in a trafficking house in Tobruk, eastern Libya, where she was repeatedly raped and saw girls as young as 14 abused. She was released only after her family paid a ransom. Another Eritrean woman recounted how traffickers mutilated and raped her and a friend who later died from her injuries. Others said they were detained in hangars where armed men beat, tortured and raped people in front of others to instill fear and extract money.

According to the report, migrants are rounded up by criminal networks that often have links to Libyan authorities and transferred to detention facilities without due process. Many are subjected to slavery, forced labour, forced prostitution and extortion. Their belongings and identity documents are confiscated and sometimes resold.

The report also highlights the dangers faced at sea. Interceptions carried out by Libyan actors are frequently violent, involving excessive force and dangerous manoeuvres. Those captured are forcibly returned to Libya, where they often fall back into cycles of detention and abuse.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said the scale of suffering is difficult to put into words, describing it as a never-ending nightmare driven by greed and exploitation. He said detention facilities have become breeding grounds for gross human rights violations.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya, Hanna Tetteh, echoed those concerns, saying the abusive system functions as a business model that profits from vulnerable people.

Both officials called for life-saving search and rescue operations at sea and urged the European Union and other international partners to suspend interceptions and returns to Libya until credible human rights safeguards are in place. Türk stressed that protecting the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees is not optional but a legal obligation under international law, and insisted that the suffering of those trapped in Libya must come to an end.