Migrants in Libya facing 'human rights crisis': U.N. report
Migrants in Libya facing 'human rights crisis': U.N. report
WORLD NEWS | Tue Dec 13, 2016 | 3:44pm EST
By Aidan Lewis | TUNIS
Migrants in Libya are suffering consistent and widespread abuse, including arbitrary detention, forced labor, rape and torture, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.
Record numbers of migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, have been trying to reach Europe via Libya, usually in flimsy inflatable boats provided by smugglers.
Armed groups have taken effective control of official detention centers for migrants amid the political chaos that now reigns in Libya and they also run their own centers, competing and cooperating with criminal gangs and smugglers.
"The situation of migrants in Libya is a human rights crisis. The breakdown in the justice system has led to a state of impunity, in which armed groups, criminal gangs, smugglers and traffickers control the flow of migrants through the country," the U.N. report said....