A/HRC/34/42
unknown assailants in Surman, remain missing. Other children have been abducted and
killed, as outlined in section III above.
41.
The ongoing violence has led to the destruction and damage of schools, the
displacement of schoolchildren, and a lack of school books. According to the Ministry of
Education, 558 out of 4,200 schools in Libya are not functioning, affecting 279,000 schoolaged children.
42.
Child health has also been affected, with the conflict leading to a breakdown in the
provision of medical services. On 5 May, it was reported that 12 infants had died from
preventable bacterial infection in the Sabha Medical Centre neonatal intensive care unit,
while 1 child died and 3 others were admitted to the intensive care unit in the Tripoli
Medical Centre after being given expired medication.
C.
Migrants4
43.
While Libya is a party to 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,
its legislation and practice are not in line with international and regional standards for
migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers. Libya criminalizes irregular migration
and has no asylum determination system.
44.
UNSMIL/OHCHR has found that migrants in Libya face a host of violations and
abuses, both in and outside detention.5 Perpetrators include State officials, armed groups
and individuals. The State has not been able to ensure effective protection for migrants in
Libya.
45.
Migrants in Libya are highly vulnerable, facing arbitrary detention in inhuman
conditions; torture, including sexual violence; abduction for ransom; extortion; forced
labour; and killings. Those held in official detention centres run by the Department for
Combating Illegal Migration under the Ministry of the Interior are held arbitrarily, with no
judicial process, in violation of Libyan law and international human rights standards.
Armed groups, smugglers and traffickers hold others in unofficial places of detention. SubSaharan Africans are especially vulnerable to abuse as a result of racial discrimination.
Migrant women are also at particular risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
46.
UNSMIL/OHCHR has documented inhuman conditions in detention centres
managed by the Department for Combating Illegal Migration. Detainees are often held in
warehouses with appalling sanitary conditions, little space to lie down and extremely
limited access to light, ventilation or washing facilities. It has received reports of guards
denying access to toilets, forcing migrants to urinate and defecate within the overcrowded
warehouses in which they are kept. In some centres, migrants suffer from severe
malnutrition, receiving on average around one third of the minimum daily intake of calories
required by adult men, leading to or contributing to deaths. It has also received numerous
and consistent reports of torture, including beatings and sexual violence, and the forced
labour of detainees.
4
5
OHCHR defines an “international migrant” as “any person who is outside a State of which he or she
is a citizen or national, or, in the case of a stateless person, his or her State of birth or habitual
residence”. See OHCHR, Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International
Borders, 2014, p. 4.
See UNSMIL/OHCHR, “‘Detained and dehumanised’. Report on human rights abuses against
migrants in Libya”, 13 December 2016.
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