###Libya Is Not Europe: Where Refugee Journeys Are Broken Before the Sea
By Janifer Yasmin
Fatima was 19 when she packed her bag and left her home in Sudan. She left because war had turned her city into ruins. Families around her were killed. Her brother had disappeared. The only direction she saw was forward toward somewhere safe. Somewhere called “Europe.”
But long before the Mediterranean Sea ever appeared on her horizon, Libya became her prison.
Fatima was detained at a checkpoint near the outskirts of Tripoli. She was told to pay a bribe. When she couldn’t, guards took her to a detention centre a place surrounded by barbed wire, where men, women, and children lived in overcrowded rooms, lacking food, water, and medicine. She had not even started the sea crossing yet.
For thousands of refugees like Fatima, the journey does not begin with a deadly sea. It begins in Libya and for many, it ends there. OCCRP
Libya: A Transit Country That Became a Dead End
Libya has long been a transit country in North Africa a place where people from Sudan, Chad, Niger, Egypt, and other parts of Africa gather in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Its geography long Mediterranean coastline and land borders with several Sub-Saharan African countries means it is a natural gateway. But since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country has been politically fragmented, with multiple governments and armed groups vying for control. This instability has transformed Libya from a transit point into a place of danger and uncertainty . acaps.org
According to the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix, nearly 930,000 migrants and refugees were living in Libya as of late 2025 nearly approaching one million people. These are people from dozens of countries who are staying there without legal status and without protection. LibyaReview
The numbers continue to grow even as the risks increase. In the first months of 2025, thousands of refugees were intercepted at sea and returned to Libya a country they hoped to pass through, not a place to be held indefinitely. LibyaReview
The Long Wait & the Injustice of Detention
For many refugees in Libya, the greatest danger comes before the sea. They are picked up by Libyan authorities or militias and sent to detention centres many of which are overcrowded, unsanitary, and violent.
The Libyan Department for Combating Illegal Immigration (DCIM), created to regulate and manage migration, runs many official detention centres. Yet in practice, these facilities often operate like prisons, with little oversight and severe human rights violations reported. ecchr.eu
Outside of the official centres, militias and traffickers hold migrants in makeshift camps, warehouses, and remote compounds. One notorious example is the Bani Walid detention camp, where migrants, including women and children, have been tortured, raped, and used to extort money from families back home. Wikipedia
Migrants in both official and unofficial detention face:
▪︎ Severe overcrowding and lack of clean water
▪︎ Insufficient food and medical care
▪︎ Physical abuse, including beatings and torture
▪︎ Sexual violence and exploitation
▪︎ Forced labour for guards and traffickers
▪︎ Extortion and ransom demands ecchr.eu
The cruelty doesn’t stop with adults. Families, children, and unaccompanied minors are often detained alongside them, with no respect for international law or protection principles. Reports have documented children living in detention centres under horrific conditions, without proper healthcare or schooling. Human Rights Watch
Trafficking, Violence, and Extortion
Libya’s breakdown of governance has created a fertile ground for human trafficking networks. Armed groups, smugglers, and traffickers exploit desperate migrants, promising them safe passage to Europe then extorting, abusing, and holding them captive.
Some groups demand ransom from families back home. Others sell women and girls into forced prostitution. Men and boys are often pressed into unpaid labour or used as recruits by armed groups. ecchr.eu
In 2025, Libyan authorities freed more than 200 migrants from a hidden underground prison near Kufra, where they had been detained for up to two years, many women and children among them. The conditions were described as inhumane, and the trafficker responsible remains at large. Reuters
Meanwhile, international agencies have documented mass graves containing the bodies of migrants in different parts of Libya a grim reminder of the deadly dangers people face even before they reach the Mediterranean. acaps.org
Denied Healthcare, Exclusion, and Daily Survival
Life outside detention centres is scarcely better. Many refugees live in abandoned buildings, makeshift settlements, or informal camps. They lack access to healthcare, education, clean water, and stable food supplies. Medical organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have reported that migrants face extreme violence and exclusion from essential care often while suffering injuries or illnesses acquired during their journeys. MSF International
Migrants who are not detained still face severe threats
▪︎ Kidnapping
▪︎ Robbery
▪︎ Assault
▪︎ Sexual violence
▪︎ Forced removal from urban areas
▪︎ Threats of deportation by Libyan authorities acaps.org
A life in Libya for refugees often means living in fear and hoping that one day, they will be able to leave.
Europe’s Migration Policies and Libya’s Role
Most discussions about Mediterranean migration focus on the dangerous crossing over the sea. But a substantial amount of pre-crossing risk is shaped by European policies that treat Libya as a buffer zone a first line of border control.
Since 2016, the European Union and countries such as Italy have invested in cooperation with Libyan authorities to intercept migrants at sea and return them to Libya rather than allow them to land in Europe. This has included training the Libyan Coast Guard, providing patrol boats and equipment, and funding migration control programmes. Amnesty International
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised these policies, arguing that they have turned Libya into a de facto containment zone where refugees and migrants are trapped in dangerous and abusive conditions.Amnesty International
Civil rescue organisations in the Mediterranean have also protested these policies. In late 2025, more than a dozen NGO-operated rescue groups cut ties with the Libyan Coast Guard, accusing it of violent interceptions and sending people back to known detention camps rife with abuse.The Guardian
The Mediterranean Crossing — Still Deadly, But Not the First Danger
Despite all these dangers, thousands of refugees continue to attempt the crossing from Libya to Europe. The Central Mediterranean Route especially toward Italy and Malta — remains one of the world’s most perilous migration paths.
In early 2025 alone, over 6,800 migrants successfully reached Europe from Libya, even as more than 100 died during the journey and dozens more were reported missing at sea.OCCRP
More recent maritime disasters have underscored the ongoing risk: boats capsizing off the coast of Libya have led to multiple deaths, including passengers from South Asia and Africa. At least one vessel carrying Sudanese refugees caught fire off Libya’s coast, killing over 60 people. Wikipedia
These tragedies receive international attention — but they represent only the visible tip of a much larger crisis. Far more people face violence, detention, or exploitation on dry land before they ever reach the open sea.
Voices from the Ground — Stories of Survival and Loss
Fatima’s story is not unique. There are countless others who found Libya to be more brutal than the sea:
▪︎ Ahmed, a 28-year-old father from Egypt, arrived in Libya hoping for work to send money home only to be robbed, detained, and beaten.
▪︎ Mariama, a young woman from Niger, was kidnapped by traffickers and forced into labour for months before escaping into the desert.
▪︎ Youssef, a teenager from Sudan, lost both parents to conflict and found himself alone in Tripoli, sleeping in abandoned buildings and unable to access healthcare.
These are individual faces behind the statistics people driven by fear, hope, desperation, and dreams of dignity.
Why This Matters — A Human Security Perspective
The crisis in Libya challenges the way we think about migration.
Often, policy debates fixate on who should be allowed into Europe and how to secure borders. But for refugees, the more urgent question is: Where can they be safe?
Libya has become a place where the suffering of refugees is both prolonged and obscured. International agreements that prioritise border control over human protection have effectively turned Libya into a containment zone a place where people are held because they are unwanted elsewhere.
From a human security perspective, this is a failure not just of migration policy but of international responsibility. Every refugee has the right to asylum, protection, and humane treatment regardless of where they are in their journey.
Ending the Trap
Libya is not Europe but for too many refugees, it has become the place where their hope ends.
Before they reach the sea, before they face drowning, before they arrive in Sicily or Crete or Malta, they are trapped in Libya. Held in detention centres, abused by traffickers, denied healthcare, and forgotten by the world.
When we talk about Mediterranean migration, we must widen the lens. The sea is only part of the story. The true tragedy for many begins on land before the first wave ever touches their boat.
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