In recent years, volatility has continued to dominate Libya’s political climate and has incurred detrimental consequences for its refugee population. A lack of political unity has meant that there is no formal legal framework that protects the rights of refugees, making them extremely vulnerable to human rights violations. Violations such as arbitrary detention, enslavement, extortion, kidnapping, and torture go unpunished, and are heightened by the ongoing presence of civil conflict in Libya.  

Although efforts have been made by external institutions such as the European Union (EU) to aid refugees in Libya, these are often thwarted by security issues and criticised for their complicit support of Libyan regimes. Refugees are left feeling endangered against a backdrop of political upheaval and conflict in Libya, at constant risk of abuse, and desperate to escape to idealised safety in Europe.

LIBYA’S DEVASTATING CIVIL WAR

Since the fall of its leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been mired in political instability and civil conflict. Gaddafi’s death generated a power vacuum, whereby different tribal regimes and political groups in Libya competed violently to gain control of the country and continue to do so today. Since 2014, the major conflict has been between two groups: the Government of National Accord (GNA), a United Nations-led initiative, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar, a former army general. The conflict that has ensued between these two political powers has had a considerable impact on Libya’s civilian population, with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimating that 1.3 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.  

Recent assaults by the LNA on GNA-controlled Tripoli and western parts of Libya were especially violent and destructive, causing unnecessary civilian deaths. Such deaths were a result of the increased use of explosive weapons, intensified airstrikes, and heavy shelling in the area, which caused nearly 150,000 people to be displaced. Detention centres that host large numbers of refugees were also specific targets, with an airstrike on Tajoura detention centre near Tripoli in July 2019 killing 53 people. The UN has stated that these deaths could constitute war crimes under international criminal law and that an estimated 2000 detainees, were “exposed to, or were in close proximity to the fighting in and around Tripoli”. These assaults were also a clear breach of international humanitarian law against refugees, including deprivation of liberty, torture, and indiscriminate attacks.

REFUGEES FACE SYSTEMIC INJUSTICE IN LIBYA

Such disastrous conflict and political turmoil have led to the breakdown of Libya’s state institutions and rule of law, gravely endangering refugees there. Refugees in Libya are already especially vulnerable due to their designated “illegal migrant” status in the country. This is because Libyan law dictates that illegal entry, exit, or stay in the country constitutes a criminal act regardless of humanitarian motivations, putting refugees at continuous risk of arbitrary arrest and detention.

Lawlessness proliferates in these Libyan detention centres which currently hold up to 10,000 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers caught on land or at sea trying to reach Europe. The centres are run by the GNA’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM) and controlled by militia, who are not subject to meaningful state supervision. Security issues are subsequently rife, and militia guards can divert funding and food in order to profit themselves. Conditions in the centres are reduced to “inhumane” and "fall far short of international human rights standards" – being underfunded and overcrowded, and lacking access to running water, nutrition and sanitation.

As seen in CNN’s 2017 watershed exposé on the Libyan slave trade, refugees held in these detention centres are also physically at the disposal of militia members. Many are exploited for work or money, forced into the slave trade, or human smuggling and trafficking networks where human rights abuses are notorious. Libya’s refugees are subject to abominable treatment under these systems, trapped in indefinite squalor and tortured or raped until they can be extorted for ransom. The UN’s Secretary-General António Guterres has previously stated that such appalling exploitation could amount to crimes against humanity.

THE LIBYA-EU COMPLEX

A significant amount of the controversy surrounding Libyan detention centres is also a result of the EU’s financial and technical involvement. Libya’s geographical proximity to the Mediterranean makes it a vital point of departure for thousands of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers attempting to reach Europe each year. In efforts to keep these groups out of European territory and circumvent international non-refoulement principles, the EU has pursued a policy of containment in Libya, externalising its migration and border control there. 

Over 500 million euros of EU money have been put towards strengthening the capacity of both the DCIM-run detention centres and the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) since 2016. In partnership with Italy, the EU has also provided extensive technical assistance and training to the LCG who are imperative to keeping refugees out of Europe. They have already intercepted approx. 500 in the Mediterranean this year. Those intercepted are automatically arrested and taken back to brutal detention in Libya, perpetuating devastating cycles of abuse for these refugees.

Through its partnership with Libyan authorities, the EU effectively facilitates and condones the shocking human rights violations that refugees face in Libyan detention centres. It has been widely criticised by the international community for “turning a blind eye to the suffering caused by its callous immigration policies” and its failure to condition these on meeting international human rights standards. 

HOPES FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE

In light of the LNA’s failed offensive to occupy Tripoli last year, there have been renewed peace talks that resulted in a country-wide peace agreement in October. As recently as the 05 February 2021, an interim unity government has now been elected in the hopes of initiating a democratic and peaceful transfer of power in the future. Such progress is welcomed but with caution. A united government could transform Libya’s migration policy, its partnership with the EU, and the lives of its refugees. Yet, Libya and the international community approach the notion of political peace with trepidation, traumatised by the country’s past.

Rose is currently working at ‘One Day Seyoum’, an Eritrean human rights organisation and has previously interned at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in New York. She holds a BA in Geography from UCL and aspires to become a barrister in Public or Criminal Law.

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