Migrants tortured, forced into sex slavery in Libya: UN

GENEVA: Migrants stuck in Libya while trying to reach Europe are being systematically tortured and forced into sexual slavery -- a crime against humanity, a United Nations investigation said on Monday.

The probe said it was deeply concerned at the deteriorating human rights situation in the conflict-torn North African country. “There are grounds to believe a wide array of war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by state security forces and armed militia groups,” the investigators concluded.

“Migrants, in particular, have been targeted and there is overwhelming evidence that they have been systematically tortured” in detention centres, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya said.

The report said there were reasonable grounds to believe that sexual slavery, a crime against humanity, was committed against migrants. And the investigators voiced concern about the deprivation of liberty of Libyans and migrants throughout the country, in what they said could also amount to crimes against humanity.

They found numerous cases of “arbitrary detention, murder, torture, rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance, confirming their widespread practice in Libya”.

People held in detention were regularly subjected to “torture, solitary confinement, held incommunicado, and denied adequate access to water, food, toilets, sanitation, light, exercise, medical care, legal counsel, and communication with family members”, the investigators said. But they said nearly all the survivors they interviewed did not lodge official complaints out of fear of reprisals, arrest, extortion and a lack of confidence in the justice system. The three-member panel said there was a broad effort by the authorities in Libya to repress dissent by civil society.