The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the authorities in Libya to protect the rights of all migrants in the country.
The UN agency made the call following reports of forced expulsion of migrants in the north African nation.
It is understood that a group of 18 Sudanese was expelled without due process after being transferred from the Ganfouda detention centre in Benghazi to the al-Kufra detention centre in southeastern Libya.
Both centres are under the control of the Ministry of Interior’s Department for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM).
OHCHR also noted that on 05 November, 2021, another group of 19 Sudanese was deported to Sudan.
The rights organisation condemned those actions, saying they contravened the prohibition of collective expulsions and the principle of non-refoulement under international human rights and refugee law.
A report published last month by OHCHR indicated that migrants in Libya were routinely at risk of arbitrary or collective expulsion without an individual assessment of their rights, circumstances or protection considerations.
The report, titled Unsafe and Undignified: The forced expulsion of migrants from Libya, noted that expulsions from Libya often placed migrants in extremely vulnerable situations.
Amnesty International (AI) had called on the European Union (EU) to urgently suspend any cooperation with Libya on migration and border control following claims that Libyan security forces used unlawful lethal force in a roundup of several thousand migrants.
AI also noted that the migrants were being held in horrid conditions where torture and sexual abuse are rampant.
‘They were not granted access to legal assistance, and were not able to challenge the lawfulness of the expulsion order’, OHCHR Spokesperson, Rupert Colville, said in a statement condemning the forced expulsion of asylum seekers.
‘In addition, they were not given access to relevant UN organisations, including the UNSMIL Human Rights Service, during their time in detention.
‘Those expelled have often already survived a range of other serious human rights violations and abuses in Libya at the hands of both state and non-state actors, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, trafficking, sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment.
‘We call on the authorities to protect the rights of all migrants in Libya, regardless of their status, to investigate all claims of violations and abuse, and to bring perpetrators to justice in fair trials.
‘And we call on Libya to act urgently to meet its obligations under international human rights law, including the principle of non-refoulement and the prohibition of collective expulsions’.
OHCHR also urged the international community to ensure due diligence in the provision of operational, financial and capacity-building support to the Libyan government in the areas of migration and border management.
Source: OHCHR
Photo source: IOM
