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 of November 2020, at least 3,200 people were being held in 11 detention centres–although many more were likely also detained in “unofficial” facilities in western Libya.
According to newly released data, in 2020 some 11,891 persons attempting to leave the country were intercepted at sea by the EU-backed Libyan Coastguard–with the majority subsequently placed in already overcrowded detention facilities. (During the first four days of 2021, more than 160 people were returned and detained.) By comparison, 9,225 people were intercepted and returned in 2019.
Detainees in Libya are particularly vulnerable to the spread of disease, due to the fact that detention facilities are dangerously overcrowded and lack even the most basic sanitary facilities. As the Independent revealed in a September 2020 article on the Al Zintan facility, “The refugees sleep in shifts, 25 of them crushed together in a tiny room-turned-prison like knives in a cutlery drawer. There isn’t enough space for everyone to lie down at the same time. They share a single toilet, which is a putrid hole in the ground, and say they have not seen the sun in a year.”
Recognising the acute vulnerability of detainees in Libya during the pandemic, the IOM announced in October that it had provided training–including in infection control, prevention, and management–to 25 health care providers working in detention facilities in Tripoli, Zawiya, Zuwara, and Dhahir Al-Jubail.
- The Libya Observer, “NCHRL: In Excess of 11,000 Migrants Returned to Libya Having Been Rescued at Sea,” 10 January 2021, https://www.libyaobserver.ly/inbrief/nchrl-excess-11000-migrants-returned-libya-having-been-rescued-sea
- B. Trew, “‘Left to Rot’: Inside Libya’s Squalid Detention Centres Where Migrants and Refugees Suffer a ‘Slow Death,’”The Independent, 4 September 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/libya-detention-centres-migrant-refugees-deaths-zintan-tripoli-a9703161.html
- InfoMigrants, “Libya: Nearly 1,000 Migrants Intercepted at Sea and Returned to Libya in 3 Days,” 4 November 2020, https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/28284/libya-nearly-1-000-migrants-intercepted-at-sea-and-returned-to-libya-in-3-days
- Libya Review, “IOM: Migrants in Libyan Detention Centres Vulnerable to Diseases,” 19 October 2020, https://libyareview.com/7414/
- Safa Msehli (Spokesman for IOM, Geneva,) Twitter, 4 January 2021, https://twitter.com/msehlisafa/status/1346003948658896896?s=20
- The Libya Observer, “IOM Conducts Training on Covid-19 to Health Care Providers at Detention Centres,” 18 October 2020, https://www.libyaobserver.ly/health/iom-conducts-training-covid-19-health-care-providers-detention-centres
- Global Detention Project, “Immigration Detention in Libya, 2018 Update,” August 2018, https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/africa/libya#country-report
