A/HRC/40/46 V. Groups in focus A. Children 35. Between 1 January and 30 November 2018, 29 children were killed and 35 injured during hostilities as a result of the indiscriminate use of weapons in residential areas by all parties to the conflict, including in crossfires and from explosive remnants of war. 36. UNSMIL/OHCHR received reports of the arbitrary detention or unlawful deprivation of liberty of children. For instance, in May, the Unit for Combating Terrorism in Abu Salim, an armed group nominally under the Ministry of the Interior, detained four members of the same family, including a 17-year-old, without an arrest warrant. The child remained detained without referral to the prosecution and was denied regular family visits. The Special Deterrence Force also arbitrarily detained three children aged under 5, together with their parents, after arresting them in Zliten on 3 February. Relatives and lawyers of detained children have been denied access to them. At least five children were held in Al-Jawiya prison, without charge or trial, on account of their alleged family links to fighters who had pledged allegiance to ISIL in Sirte. Several children were denied access to their mothers held in the women’s section of the same prison. In some facilities, children were detained together with adults. 37. As at the end of 2018, 20 unaccompanied children from Tunisia, Egypt and other African countries remained at the Libyan Red Crescent shelter in Misrata following their transfer from Sirte in late 2016, in the context of military operations against groups that had pledged allegiance to ISIL. B. Migrants and refugees 38. Libyan legislation, policy and practice contravene the State’s obligations under the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the Organization of African Unity Convention governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. Libya criminalizes irregular migration, has no asylum determination system and does not formally recognize the mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), although it permits it to operate with restrictions. 39. On 20 December, UNSMIL and OHCHR issued a joint report, titled “Desperate and dangerous: report on the human rights situation of migrants and refugees in Libya”. Among the findings of the report were that migrants systematically faced gross human rights violations and abuses, including unlawful killings, arbitrary detention and unlawful deprivation of liberty in horrid conditions, torture and other ill-treatment, rape and other sexual violence, forced prostitution, forced labour and exploitation. Perpetrators included State officials, members of armed groups, smugglers, traffickers and other criminal gangs. The authorities have been unable, and in some cases unwilling, to ensure effective protection for migrants and to provide them with remedy and redress for violations and abuses suffered. 40. Thousands of migrants7 were held indefinitely in official detention centres run by the Department for Combating Illegal Migration under the Ministry of the Interior, with no judicial process. In 2018, UNSMIL/OHCHR visited seven Department-run detention centres in Tripoli, Al-Khoms and Misrata, observing inhuman detention conditions that, in some cases, cumulatively amounted to torture. UNSMIL/OHCHR also received numerous and consistent reports of torture, including beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse, and of forced labour of detainees. Since April, bureaucratic hurdles rendered UNSMIL access to detention facilities unpredictable and irregular. For instance, in April 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed all Libyan officials not to meet any foreign non-governmental 7 Numbers generally fluctuated between about 4,000 and 9,000, with a notable rise during summer months when thousands of migrants were intercepted/rescued at sea by the Libyan Coast Guard and brought back to face indefinite detention in Libya. 7