People seeking refuge in Libya, including children as young as 14, are being subjected to horrific violence including murder, sexual assault, and forced labor, according to a new United Nations report released Tuesday.
The disturbing findings have prompted UN officials to demand that the international community stop sending migrant boats back to Libya until proper human rights protections are put in place.
Since longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in a NATO-supported rebellion in 2011, Libya has served as a major pathway for people escaping war and economic hardship as they attempt to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. The nation has been divided between competing factions in the east and west since 2014.
European Union countries have provided support and training to Libya’s coastal patrol forces in recent years, which intercept migrants at sea and return them to detention facilities. The EU has also funded programs to help Libya manage its borders.
The report, issued jointly by the UN Human Rights Office and UN Support Mission, found that migrants are being captured and kidnapped by criminal smuggling organizations that often have connections to Libyan government officials and international crime groups.
“They are separated from their families, arrested, and transferred to detention facilities without due process, often at gunpoint, in what amounts to arbitrary detention,” said Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, during a briefing in Geneva.
Libya’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Libyan officials have previously rejected claims of widespread migrant abuse.
Researchers compiled the report by conducting interviews with nearly 100 migrants, people seeking asylum, and refugees from 16 nations across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The interviews took place both within Libya and in other locations.
One account came from a woman from Eritrea who spent more than six weeks held captive at a smuggling operation in Tobruk, located in eastern Libya. “I wish I died. It was a journey of hell,” she told investigators.
“Different men raped me many times. Girls as young as 14 were raped daily,” the woman said. Her captors only freed her after her family paid money for her release.
The report, which examined the timeframe from January 2024 through December 2025, documented cases including a man forced into unpaid labor without adequate food, and young girls being taken away from their mothers.
“Men used humiliating methods with women, making them, for example, take their clothes off in front of other men and women migrants before raping them publicly, torturing them, and beating them,” explained Suki Nagra, a UN Human Rights representative working with the UN mission in Libya, during the Geneva briefing.
While the report acknowledged the critical importance of rescue operations to save migrants’ lives at sea, it strongly urged the global community to suspend returns to Libya until sufficient human rights protections can be guaranteed.
