Expulsion of migrants from Tunisia to Libya fuels abuses

June 11, 2024: NAIROBI — Tunisian border guards detained migrants and handed them over to their counterparts in Libya, where the migrants were subjected to forced labor, extortion, torture and killing, a secret U.N. human rights report seen by Reuters showed.

Both countries play an important role in the European Union’s efforts to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean from North Africa to southern Europe.

Hundreds of migrants in Tunisia were detained and deported to Libya in the second half of last year, according to a January 23 report. The report is based on interviews with 18 former detainees and photographic and video evidence of torture at one of the facilities.

Tarek Lamloum, a Libyan human rights expert, said such transfers were taking place as recently as early May. About 2,000 migrants detained by Tunisia have been handed over to Libyans this year, he said, citing interviews with more than 30 migrants.

Information from the UN press conference, which had not been previously reported, was made available to diplomats in the region.

“Collective expulsions from Tunisia to Libya and the related arbitrary detention of migrants fuel extortion and abuses that are already endemic human rights problems in Libya,” the UN statement reads.

According to the information provided in the press release, Libyan officials demanded thousands of dollars in exchange for the release of some of the migrants.

“This situation serves the interests of those who exploit the vulnerable, including human traffickers,” it added.

Libyan and Tunisian authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the UN report.

A spokesman for the UN mission in Libya said they could not comment. On April 16, Abdoulaye Bathily, then the most senior UN official, said he was “deeply concerned about the plight of migrants and refugees in Libya, who face human rights violations throughout the migration process.”

The European Union said last year it would spend 800 million euros by 2024 in North Africa to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean. Immigration was a major concern for voters in last week’s European elections, in which far-right parties won.

In the first four months of this year, the number of migrants arriving in Europe via the central Mediterranean has fallen by more than 60 percent compared with the same period in 2023. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on June 4 that the decline was due “above all” to aid from Tunisia and Libya.

But human rights groups say the EU’s policy of handing over immigration controls to third countries in exchange for aid leads to abuses and fails to address the underlying problems.

In May, Tunisian President Kais Said said hundreds of people were arriving every day and that his country was coordinating migrant returns with neighbors. The government has said in the past that it respects human rights. Libyan authorities say they are working with neighbors to resolve migration problems.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the allegations of abuses in the UN report.

A UN fact-finding mission concluded last year that crimes against humanity are being committed in some detention centres run by EU-backed forces in Libya.

A European Commission spokesman did not respond to questions sent by Reuters.

A recent UN report found that Tunisian border guards coordinated with Libyan counterparts to transfer migrants to the Al-Assa or Nalout detention centres, just over the border in Libya.

The migrants are being held for periods ranging from several days to several weeks before being transferred to the Bir al-Ghanam detention centre, which is closer to Tripoli, the statement said.

The facilities are managed by the Libyan Department for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM) and the Libyan Coast Guard.

The UN report shows that DCIM has consistently denied UN representatives access to these sites.

Migrants interviewed for the UN briefing were from Palestine, Syria, Sudan and South Sudan. Obtaining information from African migrants was more difficult because they had been deported and communication with them was more complicated.

According to the report, three of the interrogated migrants had scars and signs of torture.

A UN report in January described conditions in the Al-Assa and Bir al-Ghanam camps as “abhorrent.”

“Hundreds of detainees were crammed into hangars and cells, often with only one working toilet, without any sanitary facilities or ventilation,” the statement reads.

In Bir al-Ghana, officers allegedly extorted migrants from $2,500 to $4,000 for their release, depending on their citizenship.

According to witness accounts from a briefing in January, border guards at the Al-Assa center burned a Sudanese man alive and shot another prisoner for unknown reasons.

Former detainees identified human traffickers among the border guard officers working there, it added.

“The current approach to migration and border management is not working,” it said at a briefing in January, calling on Libya to decriminalize migrants who cross the border illegally and to ensure that all international support for border management is consistent with human rights.

Reporting by David Lewis; Additional reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Ahmed Elumani in Tripoli; Editing by Daniel Flynn

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