In recent years, Algeria has ramped up its detention and deportation operations in response to mounting pressure from Europe. Working increasingly with both neighbouring and European countries, Algerian authorities have conducted targeted raids, used an extensive network of formal and informal detention sites, and carried out (often violent) crossborder pushbacks to Niger and elsewhere. […]
Libya
Libya: The Latest Target of the Rapidly Growing U.S. Deportation Scheme
This week, Reuters reported that the Trump administration plans to deport migrants to Libya–a country long criticised by the U.S and the wider international community for its abusive treatment of migrants and asylum seekers. Just in February, investigators uncovered two mass graves in the southeast of the country containing the bodies of dozens of migrants, some bearing evidence of gunshot wounds. […]
Italy and the EU “Complicit” in Crimes Against Non-Nationals in Libya
The brutal treatment of refugees and migrants in Libya has been widely condemned and reported. Intercepted by the country’s coastguard and returned to Libyan “disembarkation zones,” non-nationals are placed in immigration detention facilities where conditions are inhuman. They face indefinite detention with frequent water and food shortages; overcrowding; physical mistreatment and torture; forced labour and […]
What Pandemic? The Persistence of Inhumane and Arbitrary Immigration Detention in Libya
The UN reported in January that there were more than 12,000 people being detained in 27 prisons and detention facilities across Libya, often in “inhumane conditions in facilities controlled by armed groups or ‘secret facilities.’” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that many of these detainees were being arbitrarily detained after the country undertook security operations […]
Kidnapped, Trafficked, Detained? The Implications of Non-state Actor Involvement in Immigration Detention
This article critically assesses a range of new non-state actors who have become involved in the deprivation of liberty of migrants and asylum seekers, describes the various forces that appear to be driving their engagement, and makes a series of recommendations concerning the role of non-state actors and detention in global efforts to manage international migration. […]
Immigration Detention Expanding in Western Libya
There have been numerous recent reports of mass raids targeting migrants and asylum seekers across Libya, resulting in thousands of people being detained in western Libya during the first week of October. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 5,152 migrants were detained in the raids, which were described by Libyan authorities as part […]
Libya: Where Immigration Detention Has Become a Crime against Humanity
The UN’s Independent Fact-Finding Mission to Libya has found that over the past five years, both state and non-state actors have committed such extreme levels of violence and abuses against migrants and refugees that there are reasonable grounds for concluding that war crimes have been committed as well as crimes against humanity. The mission, which […]
Libya: Covid-19 and Detention
Thousands of migrants and refugees continue to be detained in Libya’s network of detention centres, despite rising COVID-19 case numbers. As of 14 January, 107,434 cases and 1,645 deaths had been officially recorded in the country, although real figures are expected to be higher given a lack of testing. According to IOM and UNHCR, as […]
Letter from the Permanent UN Mission of Libya in Geneva to the Global Detention Project
The Permanent Mission of the State of Libya to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland presents its compliments to Global Detention Project, and has the honour to acknowledge your organization participation and contribution to the review of the State of Libya, which took place during the 36th Session of […]
Libya Immigration Detention Data Profile (2020)
Libya Detention Data (2020) The latest detention-related data from Libya, including immigration and detention-related statistics, domestic laws and policies, international law, and institutional indicators. View the Libya Detention Data Profile Related Reading: Libya: Country Page Special Report: Physical Fences and Digital Divides: Final Report of the Global Detention Project Special Investigation into the Uses of […]
