Migrants in Libya facing "human rights crisis" - U.N

The UN human rights report has called for an end to unimaginable abuse’ of migrants and cited human rights violations and abuses of migrants in Libya as a result of the breakdown in the country’s justice system.

Migrants in Libya are suffering consistent and widespread abuse, including arbitrary detention, forced labour, rape and torture, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.

Record numbers of migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, have been trying to reach Europe via Libya, usually in flimsy inflatable boats provided by smugglers.

“The list of violations and abuses faced by migrants in Libya is as long as it is horrific. This is quite simply, a human rights crisis affecting tens of thousands of people,“said United Nations human rights Chief, Zied Ra’ad Al Hussein, speaking from Geneva.

The U.N. report has accused some members of state institutions of participating in human smuggling and trafficking.
“These are people who, for a range of reasons, feel compelled to leave their own countries and embark on these desperate and precarious journeys” said Ra’ad.

Armed groups have taken effective control of official detention centres for migrants amid the political chaos that now reigns in Libya, and they also run their own centres, competing and cooperating with criminal gangs and smugglers.

“The report serves to deepen our compassion and strengthen our resolve that their rights should be fully protected and respected, whatever their status,” said Ra’ad.

Five years after Misrata’s fighters killed Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte, his home city, Libya is now left with two competing sets of governments in the capital and in the east.

Detention of migrants in Libya is a human rights crisis https://t.co/QpRmjVmYlh pic.twitter.com/KefLNvmJfd

— Jeff Nascimento (@jnascim) December 16, 2016

The battle has been costly and drawn-out, majority of fighters are from Misrata, many lack training and equipment and casualty rates have been high.