UN warns of brutal migrant abuses in Libya, urges EU Reforms

The United Nations has issued a stark warning over the treatment of migrants and refugees in Libya, describing it as a “brutal situation” whilst urging authorities both within and outside of the country to carry out immediate legal and political reforms.

A new report jointly published by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, describes a system marked by violence, exploitation and near-total impunity, as reported by The Libya Observer on February 19.

The findings detail widespread abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture and sexual exploitation of migrants and refugees across Libya.

These violations are not isolated incidents but constitute a broader systemic failure by both western and eastern Libyan authorities alongside international actors such as the European Union (EU). The report documents that criminal networks, frequently linked to local authorities, are involved in abducting migrants and transferring them by force to both official and unofficial detention centres.

The UN bodies also directed criticism towards the EU, calling for an immediate halt to interceptions and returns of migrants to Libya. The report stated that such actions should be suspended until full compliance with international human rights law can be guaranteed.

The EU has faced criticism for its attempts to limit migration from Libya from multiple organisations. More than a dozen Mediterranean rescue organisations have cut ties with Libya’s coastguard, which receives training, equipment and funding from the EU, over alleged abuses at sea, as reported by The Guardian.

The rescue NGOs said they will no longer communicate or cooperate with the Libyan coastguard, accusing it of violent actions that return people to detention facilities notorious for torture, rape and forced labour.

Chatham House, in a report on migrant smuggling and trafficking in Libya, described a pattern “in which Libyan groups seek political and financial support from European policymakers while allowing smuggling to continue”. Through this lens we can see how not only is the EU funding authorities with questionable human rights records, but that it is also perpetuating the status quo that has allowed smuggling gangs to flourish in Libya.

The fall of the Gaddafi government in 2011, combined with the persistent political instability that followed, has enabled migrant smuggling operations in Libya to grow rapidly as criminal smuggling networks flourished in a governance vacuum.

As a result, arrivals in Italy via the Mediterranean rose sharply after the NATO-backed uprising, climbing from roughly 28,500 migrants in 2011 to almost 163,000 by 2016.

Speaking in Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said migrants are routinely separated from their families and transferred at gunpoint to detention facilities without any form of due process.

The report calls for the immediate release of all irregular migrants held arbitrarily in roughly 40 detention centres operating across Libya. By the end of 2025, around 5,000 people were officially recorded in such facilities, though the UN believes the real figure is far higher.

It also underscored the dangers of the Central Mediterranean route, one of the deadliest migration corridors globally. More than 33,000 deaths and disappearances were recorded between 2014 and 2025.

Data from the International Organization for Migration shows that in 2025 alone, nearly 27,000 migrants were intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, while 1,314 people died or went missing.

The Libya Observer, The Guardian, Chatham House, Maghrebi.org