Routes to Justice for Migrants in Libya

First, an update on Libya’s international context. The UN Security Council approved a temporary extension to the UNSMIL mandate, leaving only three months to find a new SRSG amongst opposition to the mandate's extension by Russia. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni recently completed an official trip to Libya, affirming her government's unfortunate commitment to cooperating with the Libyan authorities on migration and economic relations. This reality exposes Italy’s continuation in greenlighting the Libyan state’s perpetrators. Since our last GlobalGiving report, LFJL has undergone significant changes in its internal structure. We're excited to announce the creation of four new and innovative programmes, tailored to achieving purpose-driven, transformative justice and change in Libya. Read more on our exciting new restructure here.

On the anniversary of the tragic Derna floods, LFJL hosted a report launch event in London in collaboration with Libya Crimes Watch (LCW). Our report highlighted the stories of those affected by the disaster, for whom precious belongings, familiar places, loved ones, and entire livelihoods were swept away by the waters. Migrants and non-Libyan nationals struggled in accessing any form of services or compensation in the aftermath of the floods, despite the scale of the disaster and its devastating impact on them. You can read the report in full, 11 Stories from 11 September, on our website.

Additionally, we have continued with our strategic litigation and advocacy efforts for accountability for crimes committed against migrants and refugees in Libya. We have engaged with survivor communities of human trafficking in Libya from the diaspora in Europe to identify victims willing to support accountability efforts. We conducted a thorough review and screening process to determine who to speak to, ensuring all efforts included informed consent from the victims as well as referral system for psychosocial support. Last month, two of LFJL’s officers travelled to Europe to interview selected survivors in-person and gather their testimonies. We have also been coordinating with partners in Libya to conduct field research on specific detention facilities and on state and non-state actors allegedly involved in serious international crimes against migrants and refugees in Libya. Follow-up editing and legal analysis of the collected materials is ongoing. The results and findings of this investigation will support the litigation efforts in the Netherlands and other relevant jurisdictions. We are looking forward to updating you on our outputs resulting from this mission in the coming months, which will include audiovisual material and a report.

Just a few days after LFJL’s last report on this project, Special Representative to the Secretary General Abdoulaye Bathily tendered his resignation, leaving the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) without a head executive. His remarks to the Security Council upon his resignation painted a bleak picture of the current Libyan political landscape, a scene riddled with bad actors occupying the chokepoints of power and refusing to humble themselves in the spirit of compromise. He discussed the continued suffering of migrants in Libya, pointing to the discovery of a mass grave site in the Southwestern desert containing the bodies of 65 migrants, and reemphasised the importance of regional and international cooperation on this issue. LFJL is working to ensure that, whoever the next SRSG may be, they centre human rights in the Mission’s programmatic work and directly address crimes against migrants in their communications with Libyan authorities.

Shifting focus to elsewhere in the UN, the Human Rights Council’s 56^th regular session commenced in June, kicking off a session wherein a revisitation of last year’s HRC resolution on Libya came due. That resolution, which ended the Independent Fact-Finding Mission and encouraged the delivery of capacity-building assistance to the Libyan state, has been decried by LFJL and other human rights organisations who have repeatedly shown how this increased capacity is being delivered to Libyan authorities complicit in, or even directly guilty of, severe human rights violations, and does little to address the grave allegations contained in the FFM’s report. Nevertheless, general consensus on the suitability of technical capacity-building assistance remained largely unchallenged by states throughout the meetings.

As fighting rages in Sudan and millions flee, Libya has been added alongside Uganda into the regional refugee response team along with the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Huge quantities of Sudanese refugees coming into Libya has stretched resources thin, forcing desperate people into inadequate or no shelter and depriving them of proper medical care. UNHCR has registered over 20,000 Sudanese refugees who have entered Libya since April 2023.

International Advocacy and Accountability

We continue to engage with UNHCR on particularly troubling cases and to keep the situation of migrants in Libya high on their agenda. Since last report, we have collected details from a number of refugees and asylum seekers in Libya who have not had communication with UNHCR despite attempting to get in contact via official channels. We raised those cases directly with UNHCR officials and provided them with the migrants’ contact details so that they may be duly registered.

As for our accountability efforts, we are still carrying out investigations in the cases in the Netherlands related to the alleged human traffickers accused of committing severe crimes against migrants and refugees within Libya. The law team continue to identify victims and witnesses to interview and liaise with our in-country contacts to determine the best routes for taking these cases forward.

What’s Next?

LFJL will continue to fight alongside its partners and advocacy coalition members for a new investigative mechanism for Libya. We hope that the departure of SRSG Bathily will pave the way for a more considered and human rights-centred approach to dealing with Libyan authorities. We continue to engage with states and advise them on the best ways forward for attaining justice for those subjected to human rights violations in Libya- an essential pretext for an effective political solution and a lasting peace.

We are continuously documenting the testimony and conditions of migrants subjected to abuse by Libyan authorities and militia groups, raising cases with relevant international mechanisms, and advocating on behalf of the human rights of all migrants in Libya.

Thank you for your continued and generous support. To receive regular updates about the work we do across all of our programmes, you can subscribe to our mailing list.