A new UN report has found that asylum seekers being returned to Libya are facing serious human rights violations in detention camps, including torture and rape. Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Libya – including young boys and girls – are facing "systematic and widespread human rights violations" including torture and rape, according to a United Nations report published on Tuesday. Libya: UN report reveals human rights abusesBut Tuesday's UN report said migrants are often rounded up and abducted by criminal trafficking networks, some with ties to the Libyan authorities and networks abroad. "They are separated from their families, arrested, and transferred to detention facilities without ​process, often at gunpoint, in what amounts to arbitrary detention," said Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, Switzerland. The document describes "a brutal and normalized reality" and denounces "an exploitative model" that preys on migrants' "heightened vulnerability."

Source: The North Africa Journal February 17, 2026 18:17 UTC