One migrant was killed and at least 15 others injured, six seriously, when security forces in Tripoli carried out raids on houses and temporary makeshift shelters on Friday in Gargaresh, an area of Tripoli heavily populated by migrants and asylum-seekers.
According to reports of officials from the Directorate of Combatting Illegal Migration, at least 4,000 people, including women and children, were arrested during the security operation.
Most of those persons arrested are now being arbitrarily detained including in detention facilities operated by the Directorate of Combatting Illegal Migration, under the Ministry of Interior.
The U.N. Support Mission in Libya condemned yesterday “the inhuman conditions in Libya’s detention centres in which migrants and refugees are held in severely overcrowded facilities with limitations on access to life-saving humanitarian assistance.”
UNSMIL reiterated that “the use of excessive and unwarranted lethal force by security and police forces during law enforcement operations is a violation of national and international law.”
“We call on the Libyan authorities to investigate reports of security forces’ use of lethal and excessive force against migrants in yesterday’s operations,” it said.