On 31 January, Amnesty International called for the EU to stop helping to return people to ‘hellish conditions in Libya’. Amnesty issued this call on the day that marks five years of formal cooperation to intercept refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. The statement reported that men, women and children returned to Libya face arbitrary detention, torture, cruel and inhuman detention conditions, rape and sexual violence, extortion, forced labour and unlawful killings. Amnesty accused the Government of National Unity (GNU) of continuing to facilitate further abuses and entrench impunity, citing the recent appointment of Mohamed al-Khoja as director of the Department for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM). According to Amnesty, Al-Khoja was previously in effective control of the Tariq al-Sikka detention centre, where the organisation has documented significant abuses.
Read the statement here.