Migrants detained off Libyan coast

More than 500 migrants attempting to get to Europe have been intercepted off the Libyan coast as the country continues a massive crackdown on migrants. The migrants were intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard while on boats believed to heading to Europe. The UN refugee agency says the majority of the migrants are from Bangladesh, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. It comes just days after one person was killed and dozens injured during a police operation in an area in west Libya popular with asylum seekers and migrants. BBC News reports that thousands have been arrested since the operation began.

War crimes and crimes against humanity have likely been committed in Libya by all parties to conflict since 2016, including by external actors, a Human Rights Council-appointed probe has announced. From arbitrary detention to torture, the recruitment of child soldiers and mass killings, the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya listed numerous grave rights violations which had impacted the country's people and which gave them ‘reasonable grounds’ for the war crimes allegations. Civilians were particularly at risk during the 2019-2020 fight for the capital Tripoli, the mission said, as well as during other violence in the country since 2016, which has been marked by attacks on hospitals, schools, migration detention centres, and communities at large. The investigators published their findings after reviewing hundreds of documents and interviewing more than 150 individuals, alongside parallel research in Libya, Tunisia and Italy. ‘Arbitrary detention in secret prisons and unbearable conditions of detention are widely used by the State or militias against anyone perceived to be a threat to their interests or views,’ said the mission's Tracy Robinson.