Migrant crackdown in Libya sparks international backlash
Libya is facing growing international criticism after authorities across the country’s political divide launched a widespread crackdown on migrants, asylum seekers and refugees following anti-migrant protests, prompting warnings of serious human rights abuses, according to the Libya Gazette on July 13th.
Human Rights Watch, in a report published on July 2nd, said authorities in both eastern and western Libya had intensified arrests, detentions and expulsions after months of inflammatory rhetoric directed at foreign nationals. The organisation said the campaign has left thousands of people detained in inhumane conditions and at risk of unlawful expulsion.
The protests began on June 4th after rumours circulated that migrants and refugees would be permanently settled in Libya. Hundreds of demonstrators blocked access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Tripoli’s Sarraj district.
The protests were driven in part by rumours that changes under the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum would see migrants permanently settled in Libya. However, those claims were unfounded, as the EU has not designated Libya a “safe third country” for migrant returns under the new policy, unlike other countries in the Maghreb, such as Morocco.
Human Rights Watch said officials on both sides of Libya’s political divide had issued statements opposing the permanent settlement of migrants before the demonstrations and announced plans to step up operations against undocumented migrants.
“Rival Libyan authorities have united in fueling xenophobic protests and subjecting migrants to mass arrests, arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions, and collective expulsions,” said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Libya has long served both as a destination for migrant workers and as a transit point for people seeking to reach the European Union. According to UNHCR, there were 110,908 registered refugees and asylum seekers in the country as of April 2026, alongside an estimated 559,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled the conflict that began in April 2023.
The UN Support Mission in Libya stated on June 9th that UNHCR was not seeking to permanently settle migrants in the country.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity identified irregular migration as a key priority during a security meeting on June 2nd. In eastern Libya, Saddam Haftar ordered security agencies to carry out mass arrests and expulsions of undocumented migrants, while authorities allied with both administrations issued statements rejecting any permanent settlement of migrants.
The organisation said security forces and armed groups have since carried out mass arrests across Libya. Eastern authorities reported detaining more than 7,500 people pending expulsion and said more than 10,000 migrants had already been expelled in recent months. The Interior Ministry in western Libya also announced the deportation of a group of Egyptian nationals on 14 June.
Human Rights Watch said the latest operations follow an established pattern of collective expulsions that violate international human rights and refugee law. It also cited previous UN findings that migrants in Libya are routinely detained without due process and, in some cases, abandoned in life-threatening desert conditions after being expelled.
The organisation called on Libyan authorities to end arbitrary arrests, release detainees held without charge or due process, improve detention conditions and stop collective expulsions. It also urged Libya to formally recognise UNHCR and allow it unrestricted access to detention sites, while calling on the European Union to make future security cooperation conditional on measurable improvements in the protection of migrants’ rights.
“So long as the European Union keeps funding the very forces driving these abuses, it is complicit in what is happening,” Salah said.
The human rights concerns surrounding EU cooperation with Libyan authorities have been highlighted by organisations including the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which has criticised European support for the Libyan Coast Guard.
In a joint letter signed by more than 40 humanitarian and civil society organisations, campaigners argued that EU funding had “enabled and legitimised abuses”, citing repeated allegations of violence during interceptions of people in distress at sea and warning that a culture of impunity persists.
Among the signatories was SOS MEDITERRANEE, which said its rescue vessel Ocean Viking was attacked in international waters in August by a boat that evidence suggests had been supplied by Italy through an EU-funded programme.
Not only has EU policy resulted in human rights abuses, but the current European policy stance has empowered the very Libyan actors who have hampered previous attempts to stem irregular migration by the EU. A report by Chatham House stated that although EU cooperation with Libyan authorities on migration has reduced crossings to Italy since 2017, these policies have also strengthened armed groups accused of human rights abuses.
The financial and logistical support from the EU has helped entrench actors linked to migrant smuggling and abuse, raising concerns that efforts to curb irregular migration have inadvertently empowered the very groups undermining stability in Libya.
Often times the EU will defend itself by referring to these “groups” as militias and gangs, as if they are distinct from the state authorities in Tripoli and Benghazi, through which EU funds are sent. The reality is that these militias are the state, whether through alignment under Haftar, or the fractured mess that western Libya finds itself in, Libya’s armed militias have become the nation-state itself.
Ursula von der Leyen and Giorgia Meloni might find videos of the Libyan coastguard shooting at migrants or throwing them overboard a tad unsavoury, however the reality is that Libya’s militias have become the baton-wielding arm of Europe’s externalised border control strategy.
Libya Gazette, Human Rights Watch, ECCHR, Chatham House, Maghrebi.org
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