Business as Usual
- Refugees in Libya
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
On October 2021, 5000 children, women and men started a protest in front of the UNHCR offices of Tripoli with the goal to finally stop the impunity of politicians, armed groups, human traffickers, lawyers and judges all forging the criminal Libyan system based on the deprivation of individual freedom and human dignity.
The special report of UNSMIL (United Nations Support Mission in Libya) and OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) - "Business as Usual" - is primarily based on information gathered between January 2024 and November 2025:"It draws on firsthand data collected through individual interviews with over 95 migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees, both within and outside of Libya. The interviewees included 45 women and girls (aged 17 to 43) and 50 men (aged 20 to 51), from diverse places of origin, including Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen". Many of these testimonies come from our comrades, activists and human rights defenders with whom we shared the streets of Tripoli for over 100 days.
"Libya has neither an asylum or anti-trafficking law, and it makes no formal legal distinctions between refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants, and victims of trafficking, including individuals with specific needs or children"
Instead, they are governed by Law No. 19 of 2010 on Combating Illegal Migration, which criminalizes irregular entry, stay, and exit from Libya: "foreigners present in the country without regular status “shall be penalized by detention with hard labour or by a fine not exceeding 1,000 LYD”.
Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees attempting to enter Libya by land face systematic violence from traffickers, smugglers, as well as State actors and de facto authorities.
The "... exploitative model that preys on migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in situations of heightened vulnerability [...] has become “business as usual” – a brutal and normalized reality [...] evolved into deliberate, profit-driven practices that together form a ruthless and violent business model".
Read here the full report
Comments