Migration activist Ebrima Drammeh has condemned the racist violence against African migrants and refugees by government officials in Libya, according to a press release issued on March 20, 2025.
Below is the full statement.
“After hateful agitation against Black migrants and refugees by government officials, Black people in Libya are experiencing an outbreak of racist violence, human rights abuses ,and discrimination.
Between March 12th and 16th, raids, mass arbitrary arrests, assaults, murders, and collective expulsions of Black people have been occurring in Western Libya. The people targeted by this violence are mostly African migrants and refugees including Gambians, but also Black Libyans and Tunisians. Here are only a few of the accounts we are receiving from our comrades in Libya:
In Sabrata, a group of unidentified militias accompanied by civilians raided black people’s houses to arrest hundreds and take them to detention centers, murdering at least one Sudanese refugee in the process. Similar raids were conducted in Janzour by the Stability Support Apparatus, Emergency Police, and Internal Security. The 6th Support Battalion also arrested hundreds of black people in Al-Serraj.
In Ben-Gashir, Battaillon 444 evicted migrants and refugees from their houses, burnt their belongings, and told them to never come back, also warning the landlords that offering accommodation to any migrant would be considered as facilitating illegal migration.
In Tajoura, the EU-trained Directorate to Combat Illegal Migration carried out a raid where they caught hundreds of migrants and refugees and again transferred them to detention centers. In Al-Madina Gadima, a district of Tripoli, similar raids were conducted by the police, the EU-trained Directorate to Combat Illegal Migration and Special Deterrence Forces. Mass arrests also happened in Misrata, where hundreds were brought to concentration camps by unidentified militias. In Ghut-Shaal, another district of Tripoli, a group of Libyan civilians committed a pogrom against black people, targeting all African shops with the permission and complicity of local authorities and security forces.
Our comrades on the ground also report multiple cases of sexual violence against women and at least two documented cases of murder of Black persons. In Tarik Al Madar, on the night of Friday, 14 March, a pregnant woman from Niger was killed by a Libyan citizen. She got hit by a car while the victim and her husband were coming back from the mosque. The number of similar incidents is likely much higher than what is currently known. Comrades on the ground also report Black people being fired from their jobs and expelled from their rented houses and apartments, solely on the basis of their skin color.
Up until now, the dehumanization we have seen and experienced in Libya against migrants and refugees has been mostly for profit. EU-supported militias and criminals arbitrarily arrest people in order to enslave them in construction or to work in households and fields. If they refuse or run away, they are mistreated and tortured and their families are forced to pay ransoms. The racist dimension we are witnessing now is a novelty. This violence follows inflammatory hate speech and conspiracy theories propagated by Government of National Unity (GNU) authorities against migrants and refugees, and its motivation is a xenophobic and racist desire to expel all black people from the country. This racist violence colludes with the EU goals of “preventing irregular migration” and follows several meetings of the EU ambassador with GNU authorities to discuss “combating human smuggling and border management”. This closeness, and the EU’s silence about the racist violence in Libya, indicates the EU’s tacit encouragement of this violence as long as it serves its anti-migrant objectives.
The extreme violence of these crimes, their scale, the blatant discrimination, and their racial motivation make them yet again crimes against humanity. Who is responsible? Ebrima migrant situation and Refugees in Libya and its Alliance have identified some of those allegedly responsible for these abuses. This is not an exhaustive list, but we wish to see all these individuals brought to court to respond for their criminal actions, either in Libya, in the EU, or in The Hague:
The Libyan Government of National Unity holds the highest political responsibility for the crimes committed. In particular, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and Minister of Interior Emad Al-Trabelsi are personally responsible for spreading dehumanizing hate speech encouraging genocide, and ordering the violent attacks.
Libyan militias, security forces, and warlords are the direct perpetrators of this violence, as well as failing to prevent racist violence from civilians. Among them, we have identified these actors as the main alleged perpetrators:
The EU-trained Department to Combat Illegal Migration (DCIM) and its head Mohamed al-Khoja
The Libyan Police, headed by the wanted war criminal recently released by Italy, Osama Elmasry Njeem.
The RADA Special Deterrent Forces and its head Abdul-Raouf Kara
Even if most Libyans are peaceful and some have bravely raised their voices in solidarity, some Libyan civilians are being complicit in these violent crimes, fire migrants from their jobs, expel them from their homes, and hand over their Black neighbours to the police or even perpetrate the racist violence themselves.
The European Union has been funding, training, equipping, and politically supporting the DCIM and other Libyan forces to prevent people from reaching Europe by any means, despite overwhelming evidence that these actors were involved in crimes against humanity. In the last months, the EU delegation in Libya has met with GNU and Haftar authorities to agree on further cooperation on anti-migrant action. A communication to the ICC already identified the high-ranking officials implicated. But also mid-ranking officials are instrumental in this criminal cooperation. Two of these officials are:
Nicola Orlando, EU ambassador to Libya, coordinates political and material support to the Libyan criminal actors and refuses to publicly denounce their abuses.
Francisco Joaquin Gaztelu Mezquiriz, a key European Commission official who has been for years funding the Libyan Coast Guard, DCIM, and other criminal actors despite knowing of the crimes they were committing.
The GNU authorities are publicly expressing intent to eliminate all African migrants from Libya and encouraging security forces and civilians to use violence in order to achieve these goals. Civilians and militias are perpetrating this violence, while the EU keeps training, equipping, and supporting them. We fear for the lives and safety of our friends and comrades in Libya. We denounce this chain of violence as an ongoing genocide against black people in Libya. Therefore, we call to action to all the actors involved to stop the violence:
We demand an end to the hateful agitation spread by the Libyan GNU and to the violence that has resulted from it. Assaults, collective expulsions, torture, detention, and discrimination must end, and those responsible must be held accountable. Vulnerable populations in Libya, such as refugees of war must receive adequate protection.
We call on the Libyan civil society to resist the racist agitation and instead act in solidarity with those victimised by the attacks.
We demand that the EU member states open safe pathways through their embassies in Libya and humanitarian corridors. Those in immediate danger need to be evacuated to safe places. The funding of and cooperation with Libyan authorities, such as the DCIM, Coast Guard, and other actors involved in crimes against humanity need to stop immediately.
We demand that the EU, first of all, publicly condemns the racist hate speech and mass violence committed by the GNU and its militias against migrants, refugees, and black people. We demand, secondly, that the EU take responsibility for the crimes being committed by the forces that were trained and equipped by the EU. The EU must immediately stop the funding and training of Libyan military and police units. Failing to do so only keeps reinforcing the EU’s role as an enabler and co-perpetrator of these crimes.
We call upon the ICC to expand the scope of the investigation on Libya into the crimes against humanity being committed against refugees, migrants, and Black people. The court must also end the unjustifiable double standards and start investigating the EU and its member states as co-perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Libya due to its instrumental support of the crimes being committed.
We also demand the UNHCR to publicly denounce the violence happening to refugees of war and asylum seekers and look for ways to offer protection and push states to expand resettlement and humanitarian corridors for people to escape Libya.
As refugees, migrants, and Black people in Libya we may not have the weapons to defend ourselves from your racist violence. But we have our voices and we are not afraid to use them.”
