UN Report Details Widespread Abuse of Migrants in Libya

By Al Mayadeen English

17 Feb 2026 15:24

The report highlights systematic detention, sexual violence, trafficking, and extortion within an entrenched profit-driven system of abuse.

A new investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Office and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya concludes that migrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees in Libya are enduring organized and profit-driven abuse, including killings, torture, rape, trafficking, and forced labour.

Covering the period from January 2024 through December 2025, the report is based on interviews with nearly 100 people from 16 countries across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Investigators describe a pattern in which migrants are rounded up or abducted by trafficking groups, some allegedly operating with connections to state-linked actors, before being transferred to detention sites without judicial oversight.

Libya’s rape network

Inside these facilities, detainees reported systematic mistreatment, ranging from physical violence and sexual assault to ransom demands, extortion, and the confiscation and resale of identity documents and personal belongings. The report characterizes the system as an entrenched “exploitative model” targeting people already in vulnerable situations.

“I wish I died. It was a journey of hell,” said an Eritrean woman, who was detained for over six weeks at a trafficking house in Tobruk, in eastern Libya. “Different men raped me many times. Girls as young as 14 were raped daily,” she said. The perpetrators released her after her family paid a ransom.

Another Eritrean survivor described severe abuse after she and a friend were held by traffickers. Previously subjected to female genital mutilation, she said both women were forcibly cut open and then assaulted. Her friend later died due to excessive bleeding.

A third woman recounted being held in a hangar where armed men would remove women at night and assault them in front of others. “I was raped twice in that hangar before my daughters and other migrants. A Sudanese man tried to help me and stop them, but they beat him severely. My daughter was traumatised and is still asking me about that night,” she said.

The report also examines attempts by migrants to cross the central Mediterranean, noting that interceptions by Libyan actors often involved hazardous maneuvers and threats. Individuals intercepted at sea were frequently returned to Libya, where many faced renewed detention and renewed abuse.

Collective expulsion crisis

In addition, investigators raised concerns over group deportations conducted without evaluating individual protection claims, warning that such practices may violate international human rights and refugee law standards, including those set out in the African Union Refugee Convention. Expelled migrants were reportedly left along the border areas without adequate access to water, food, or medical care.

“There are no words to describe the never-ending nightmare these people are forced into, only to feed the mounting greed of traffickers and those in power profiting from a system of exploitation,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

“This abusive ‘business model’ preys on individuals in situations of heightened vulnerability, with detention facilities serving as breeding grounds for gross violations of human rights,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya, Hanna Tetteh.

The United Nations is calling on Libyan authorities to free those held without legal grounds, halt unsafe maritime interceptions, and decriminalize irregular migration. It also urges accountability for trafficking networks and for officials implicated in violations.

The report appeals to the international community, including the European Union, to suspend returns to Libya until adequate safeguards are in place, and to apply strict human rights due diligence to any funding, training, or operational cooperation involving Libyan entities accused of serious violations. Assistance, it states, should be conditional on consistent adherence to international human rights standards.