Press Invitation: Refugee-led Book Launch in Geneva, 12 Sept – “Book of Shame” Exposes UNHCR Failures in Libya, Tunisia & Niger

Dear journalists,

On Friday, 12 September 2025, at 11:00,  in front of UNHCR’s global headquarters in Geneva, three refugee-led collectives — Refugees in Libya, Refugees in Niger, and Refugees in Tunisia — will launch a landmark publication:

📕 Book of Shame: How UNHCR Fails to Protect Refugees in Libya, Tunisia, and Niger (Vol. 1, 2025)

This is the first book of its kind written and compiled by refugees and refugee-led groups. It documents how UNHCR fails to protect refugees and instead collaborates with European containment policies, silences refugee voices, and suppresses refugee protests across North Africa. The book gathers first-hand testimonies from April 2024 through September 2025, spanning detention centers in Libya, isolated desert camps in Niger, and protest sites in Tunisia. 

The Book of Shame follows the UNFAIR campaign, launched by Refugees in Libya after the 100-day sit-in protest in front of the UNHCR office in Tripoli in 2022. Three years on, little has changed: refugee-led movements are still treated as a threat, protests are repressed, and the right to protection remains denied.

But this book is more than a catalogue of failures. It is a collective act of resistance,  a political intervention by refugee human rights defenders who refuse to be silenced. It is not an NGO report — it is a witness statement, a demand for accountability, and a record of ongoing struggle.

The book includes:  

• Testimonies from refugees trapped in the isolated desert camp near Agadez, Niger

• First-hand accounts of brutal violence, neglect and abandonment in Libya’s streets and detention centers

• Testimonies from refugees facing repression in Tunisia

• A comprehensive chapter on UNHCR’s role in border externalization

• A final collective manifesto by the refugee movements in Libya, Tunisia and Niger

Why this matters now:

• Refugee-led protests continue in Agadez, Tripoli, and Tunis despite repression

• UNHCR’s role in Europe’s border externalisation is expanding across the region

• Refugees are speaking out in a united voice, not as passive victims, but as organized communities 

• Journalists rarely hear refugee voices beyond the victim frame — this book changes that

On 12 September, we will be in Geneva to present the book to UNHCR’s global headquarters. The launch will be followed by a demonstration for refugee rights the next day, 13 September, starting at 14:00 in front of the IOM headquarters 17 Route des Morillons, 1218 Grand-Saconnex  

Copies of the book (PDF and print) will be available at the launch, and spokespeople from each refugee-led collective will be available for interviews.

👉 Contact: info@refugeesinlibya.org | www.refugeesinlibya.org  | +393515136619  |  Download the book: here

We warmly invite you to cover this launch and help bring forward voices that are too often silenced in today’s world, where refugee rights are increasingly treated as expendable.

In solidarity,   Refugees in Libya – Refugees in Niger – Refugees in Tunisia