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RABAT: Libya has emerged as the North African country where migrants face the greatest challenges, including kidnappings and abuse at the hands of smugglers and militias, International Organization for Migration chief Amy Pope told AFP.
Most of the migrants who have died in the Mediterranean had departed from Libya, the IOM director general said, making the route itself especially risky. But even those who have yet to set off are vulnerable.
“We regularly hear reports from migrants about being kidnapped, being held for ransom, suffering abuse and assault” in Libya, Pope said during an interview in Rabat.
“I myself have heard many stories of migrants who’ve been detained by non-government actors and held for ransom or suffered abuse,” she added.
With the European Union’s mounting efforts to curb migration, many people are left stranded in Libya while dreaming of a better life.
Libyan authorities said in July there were up to four million irregular migrants in the country.
Smugglers and human traffickers have taken advantage of the instability in Libya following years of unrest after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
“It’s a very dangerous and precarious place for many migrants who are coming through the hands of smugglers,” Pope said, adding that migrants transiting through Libya come from various countries, including from Asia.
Libya is “where migrants face the greatest challenges” in North Africa, she added.

- ‘Outstripping resources’ -

While migrants stranded in Libya have suffered for years, the situation has worsened since the outbreak of war in Sudan in 2023.
Conflict there between the army and paramilitaries has displaced millions of people.
More than 357,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived in Libya since April 2023 as of August, UNHCR data showed.
“What we worry about more actually are things like the war in Sudan, which has continued to displace people in very significant numbers,” Pope said.
Cuts in UN funding pose another challenge.
“There’s frankly been a very significant decrease in resources to provide the level of support and care,” Pope said.
The other regional main departure point is Tunisia.
Departures from there have decreased, owing to a $290-million EU agreement from 2023, but thousands of mainly sub-Saharan African migrants feel stranded.
There, “the number of migrants is far outstripping the resources that are available to support those who are in need,” Pope said.
Earlier this year, Tunisian President Kais Saied urged the IOM to accelerate voluntary returns for irregular migrants to their home countries.
“The situation across the world right now is insufficient to meet the pressures on people to move,” Pope said.

CAIRO: Notorious paramilitaries said they had seized a headquarters in the center of the besieged provincial capital of North Darfur, the Sudanese military’s last stronghold in Darfur.
As fighting continued to rage on Monday in el-Fasher, a medical group said the Rapid Support Forces had killed dozens of civilians and destroyed health care infrastructure the previous day in the city, where hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped for more than a year.
Losing the 6th Division base is a major setback to the military and its allies. Fighting was continuing Monday morning around the airfield of the base, as well as on the western side of the city, according to Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a grassroots group tracking the war. The group criticized the military for what it said lack of air support to troops trying to fend off the RSF attacks.
The military has yet to comment on the RSF capture of the base. However military officials confirmed that troops vacated the base on Sunday and retreated to another defense line under heavy shelling and artillery attacks from the paramilitaries.
Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed the headquarters of the military’s 6th Division on Sunday with multiple buildings around the compound bearing damage to their roofs. One building in particular looked to have taken serious damage.
The layout of the headquarters as seen in the satellite images corresponded to details seen in footage released by the RSF, showing their fighters gathering around one bullet-scarred building, heralding their capture of the city.
The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University, HRL, also confirmed through satellite imagery that the paramilitaries advanced Sunday as far as the 6th Division headquarters, with “significant evidence of close-quarter battle in the area.”
In a statement late Sunday, the HRL reported that it has identified activities likely showing RSF taking prisoners in and around the airfield area, which was the main base of military operations.
The Sudan Doctor Network, a medical group tracking the war, described the RSF attack as a “heinous massacre” during which the paramilitaries killed dozens of people.
In a statement Monday, the group said RSF fighters rampaged through parts of el-Fasher, looting hospitals and other medical facilities and “destroying what remained of essential life-supporting and health care infrastructure” in the city.
The Darfur Network for Human Rights reported that the RSF detained over 1,000 civilians after their capture of the base in what it called “a systematic targeting of civilians, arbitrary detentions and potential acts amounting to war crimes.”
Among the detained was a local journalist, who was one of the few journalists remaining in the city, according to the Sudanese Journalists Union.
The group warned about potential “mass violations” in el-Fasher similar to what happened in another Darfur city in 2023 when RSF fighters ran riot there killing hundreds of people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed “deep alarm” at reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement in el-Fasher.
“Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified — shelled, starving, and without access to food, health care or safety,” he said in a statement. He called for “safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access” to help the population who remained in the city.
Before Sunday’s attack, there were 260,000 civilians, half of them children, trapped inside the city living in “desperate conditions,” according to the UN children’s agency.
Between 2,500 and 3,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the latest fighting. They moved to other areas within the city, and could flee again toward other areas in North Darfur “depending on security conditions and movement restrictions,” the UN migration agency said.
The city is the military’s last stronghold in the Darfur region and has been at the epicenter of fighting for over a year between the Sudanese military and the RSF, which grew out of the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias that brutalized the Sudanese during the Darfur conflict in 2000s.
Sudan plunged into a war in April 2023 when simmering tension between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the northeastern African country.
The devastating war has killed over 40,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with part of the country plunged into famine. It has forced over 14 million people to flee their homes, with some crossing into neighboring countries.
It has been marked by gross atrocities including ethnically motivated killings and rape, according to the United Nations and rights groups. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.