Europe’s outsourced border: migrant violence in the Maghreb

Amnesty International condemned, on 23 June, the European Union’s move to increase cooperation with Libya to curb migration, despite the increasingly hostile situation facing migrants in the country. Owing to its geographical location, the Maghreb has become a major transit point for men, women and children seeking to migrate to Europe. The movement of thousands of migrants through the region each year has fuelled a growing industry: human trafficking. As Algeria arrested 23 people on 7 July on charges related to migrant smuggling involving Morocco, further questions arise about the state of human trafficking and efforts to combat it in the region.

Libya: Europe’s outsourced border

After Libya’s revolution in 2011 and the death of autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, the country descended into chaos, leaving it politically fragmented and divided between rival administrations. Split between the government based in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar, Libya has become a hub for trafficking and human rights abuses. Sub-Saharan migrants travel to Libya and its coastline in the hope of reaching Europe, yet reports from numerous NGOs and testimonies indicate that the reality is one of violence and terror.

As the country’s authorities do little to curb the spread of human trafficking, militias and criminal organisations kidnap migrants, subject them to slavery and sexual abuse, and hold them captive for months or even years. Under the guise of offering passage to Europe, migrants are detained in makeshift facilities, including hangars, open compounds and abandoned factories, where they are effectively treated as commodities.

The smuggling and trafficking economy grew to such an extent that, by 2015, human smuggling represented 3.4% of Libya’s gross domestic product.

In recent months, the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity and its rival eastern administration have launched a crackdown on foreign nationals, amid growing hostility towards migrants among the Libyan population. The recent fuel shortage has further fuelled tensions, as hundreds of Libyans blocked the entrance to the UNHCR office in Tripoli on 4 June, protesting against migrants and UNHCR’s presence, which is increasingly perceived as foreign pressure to keep migrants inside the country.

The European Union’s decision to increase cooperation with Libya has been criticised by organisations including UK-based Amnesty International. “The EU has long bankrolled migration control in Libya with its support to the Libyan Coast Guard, which has already made it complicit in horrific violations and abuses. Extending this cooperation to eastern-based armed groups with records of committing war crimes and other abuses with impunity shows a shocking disregard, not only for international law, but also for human life and dignity,” said Diana Elahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Since 2015, the European Union has provided roughly €700 million to Libya for border management, surveillance and support for the Libyan Coast Guard, despite continued instability and widespread allegations of human rights violations documented by international organisations and the International Criminal Court.

As the EU seeks to outsource border control and externalise migration management, migrants find themselves trapped in an increasingly violent Libya, abandoned by international institutions and trafficked by illegal, yet often tolerated, organisations into slavery and inhumane conditions.

Tunisia: Allegations of state complicity

As Tunisia and Libya share a sometimes porous border, crossing from one country to the other is relatively easy for trafficking networks, but they are not the only ones. According to a report by Researcher X, supported by Border Forensics and ASGI and presented to the European Parliament, as well as investigations by Lighthouse Reports and American agencies, the Tunisian government has been accused of involvement in human trafficking by transferring migrants to Libyan militias at the shared border.

The reports describe a five-step trafficking process carried out not by individual actors but by state institutions, facilitated through policies linked to EU commitments. Migrants are reportedly racially profiled, with Black people arbitrarily arrested by Tunisian police before being held illegally in detention facilities. According to the reports, official documents are confiscated, and detainees are moved between secret locations before being transported to the Libyan border. Migrants have alleged that members of the Tunisian National Guard and police use intimidation and violence to prevent resistance during what is described as an “expulsion phase”. They are then held in detention camps, where humiliation and intimidation are reportedly commonplace before they are, according to witnesses, sold.

Groups of detainees are exchanged for money, hashish and fuel, with payments sometimes involving a combination of all three. Witnesses consistently report the presence of uniformed personnel on the Tunisian side of the border. On the Libyan side, buyers reportedly include groups composed entirely of uniformed personnel with official vehicles, mixed groups of uniformed and plain-clothed armed men, and militia members without uniforms.

Witnesses stated that the most common selling prices ranged between 40 and 300 Tunisian dinars (€12–90) per person, while transactions often involved groups of between 40 and 150 people.

One witness told Researcher X: “The Garde Nationale handed us over (to the Libyans) to sell us. They took us to the desert in their trucks. They were armed to the teeth. They waited for the Libyans, who were also armed to the teeth; some of them were wearing uniforms, others weren’t. They were shooting in the air. (…) They made their exchange with drums of petrol carried on their pick-up trucks (around 50) and a black sack containing drugs. The Tunisian Garde Nationale and the Libyan army made this deal in front of us. Then the Libyan soldiers picked us up, and we left”. 

In July 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that it had launched an investigation into the presence of mass graves in the desert along the Tunisian-Libyan border. According to Researcher X, the main location where migrants sold by Tunisian forces were taken appears to be Al Assah prison, identified in the UN Human Rights Council’s June 2024 report as one of the epicentres of human rights violations. The prison is controlled by the Libyan Border Guard and the DCIM (Department for Combating Illegal Migration). The Libyan Border Guard is among the beneficiaries of the European Union Border Management Assistance Mission (EUBAM), which operates in the village of Al Assah near the prison.

Once inside the prison, detainees reportedly undergo a form of triage to identify those able to pay ransoms of between €400 and €700, while others are subjected to torture and abuse. Telephones and identity documents are confiscated, while many migrants enter Libyan territory only to face years of violence and abuse at the hands of state actors and/or militias.

As NGOs and researchers continue to document and denounce these human rights violations across the Maghreb, the EU’s reliance on Libya and Tunisia to manage migration beyond its borders has contributed to a lack of international accountability, fuelling a wider human rights crisis.

Morocco and Algeria: Shifting migration routes

As Libya has become increasingly violent, Algeria and Morocco have seen a rise in the number of migrants arriving on their territories. Migrants pass through Morocco via several routes, either travelling west along the Atlantic coast before attempting to reach the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, or heading towards the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the only European territories with a land border in Africa. For some, Morocco is the final destination, while others remain for extended periods before deciding to continue north.

Since Spain and Morocco have signed numerous migration agreements to strengthen migration management, opportunities to migrate through Morocco have become increasingly limited. In a diplomatically significant move, Madrid recognised Morocco’s autonomy plan for most of Western Sahara.

According to research by the UNODC and the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, most smuggled migrants intercepted by Moroccan authorities originate from Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, the vast majority reach Morocco with the assistance of smugglers or facilitators. Migrant smuggling in Morocco is built on precarious alliances between refugee committees, boat providers and the Moroccan “Taxi Mafia”. Violence and fraud committed by these smugglers and facilitators against migrants and refugees have increased since early 2020, according to key informants cited in the Observatory’s research. This has coincided with intensified police controls, stronger incentives for cooperation with the EU, and travel restrictions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Migrant smuggling in Morocco and Algeria relies primarily on loose networks of local facilitators rather than large organised criminal groups. “Chairmen” oversee informal migrant communities, known as ghettos, collecting fees and connecting new arrivals with smugglers. Drivers, often locals facing economic hardship, transport migrants across borders and through desert routes. In northern Mali, armed groups do not generally smuggle migrants directly but instead profit by extorting fees from passing convoys. Border crossings between Algeria and Morocco, in either direction, provide significant opportunities for smugglers transporting migrants, particularly towards cities such as Oujda.

In Morocco and Algeria, trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labour remains widespread. According to available data, 89% of people experiencing human rights abuses in southern Algeria are attempting to move north. Official statistics and government responses remain limited, while human trafficking in Morocco and Algeria receives relatively little attention in mainstream media. Although arrests of smugglers and, at times, traffickers are common, the broader reality is that migrant rights are often not the primary concern of either European or North African governments.

The Balearic route: A growing maritime crossing

Increasingly strict migration controls in Morocco, combined with enhanced cooperation with the EU, have contributed to a rise in embarkations departing from the Algerian coast. These boats have increasingly headed towards the Balearic Islands, a migration route that had previously been overshadowed by more practical alternatives but has experienced a notable increase in arrivals over the past two years. Arrivals by small boats from Algeria to the Balearic Islands increased by 24.5% in 2025 compared with 2024, while the Spanish Ministry of the Interior reported that 7,321 people reached the archipelago in approximately 401 boats departing from Algeria.

This migration route is particularly dangerous, with 1,037 people reported missing or dead across 121 recorded incidents. Fatality rates for those attempting Mediterranean crossings have increased in recent years. The first official figures for 2026 indicate no decline in departures along this route, raising further concerns about the conditions and dangers facing those attempting the crossing.

The migration situation across the Maghreb is heterogeneous, with some countries responding to migration with greater levels of violence than others. Migrants are routinely subjected to abuse, albeit to varying degrees, while the EU continues to prioritise its migration policies, including cooperation with Frontex, even when doing so raises concerns over human rights. The use of Maghreb countries as an extension of European border policy has contributed to an increasingly hostile environment for migrants, many of whom remain trapped in countries that offer little protection.

Amnesty International, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, InfoMigrants, Lighthouse Report, Reuters, Research X, UNODC, Maghrebi.org