Refugees in Libya face systematic human rights violations and abuse in a bid by authorities to coerce them to return to their home countries
Refugees in Libya face systematic human rights violations and abuse in a bid by authorities to coerce them to return to their home countries.
A report found that refugees in the country often find themselves trapped in precarious situations.
It outlined that they are often forced to choose between returning to the country they fled in fear for their lives or contending with ill-treatment in Libya.
The report also found no meaningful access to human rights protection for refugees within the country. As a result, refugees had minimal options for accessing protection for their human rights when moving from Libya.
The report found that migrants in Libya are overwhelmingly victims of human rights violations and abuses perpetrated by State and non-State actors.
Despite the well-documented and widespread nature of the human rights violations, refugees in Libya often lack access to asylum and other safe and regular pathways.
In addition, the UNfound that refugees, particularly those in Libyan detention centers, cannot make a truly voluntary decision to return to their home countries if they wish to do so and often lack the correct information to make an informed choice.
Many are held under conditions where threats of sexual violence, torture, and extortion are rife, which collectively ensures that a coercive environment is created that is inconsistent with free choice.
Since 2015, the UN estimates more than 60,000 refugees have been repatriated to countries across Africa and Asia through so-called assisted voluntary return programs.
Most of these people come from Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, they are exposed to particularly severe treatment in official and unofficial detention facilities.
In September, rights groups called on Libyan authorities to help hundreds of Egyptians detained in the country's east. Some 287 Egyptians, including 90 children, were detained following a raid. According to accounts, some detainees paid sums amounting to $8,800 to smugglers to attempt to reach Europe.
In the past, Libyan authorities have been accused by a European human rights monitor of holding hundreds of Moroccan refugees in inhumane conditions, without legal justification, for months.
People were often held without adequate healthcare, food, or clean drinking water, allowing infectious diseases to spread rapidly among detainees.
Refugees In Libya Forced To Risk Torture Or Return Home
Refugees are known to travel by land to Libya, where they plan to begin their journey across the Mediterranean Sea toward Italy.