Eritrean migrants allege rape and torture in Libya

Eritrean migrants have told AFP they faced rape, torture, extortion and killings in Libyan detention centres, while a UN report says abuses against migrants in Libya remain systematic and widespread.

The accounts come despite at least 865 million euros in European Union funding to Libya since 2015, channelled mostly through UN agencies and other international organisations, to curb migration towards Europe and support what the EU calls rights-based migration management.

One 19-year-old Eritrean man told AFP by phone from a police detention centre in Benghazi that he had been kidnapped, beaten and tortured after fleeing Eritrea in January 2025. He said his family paid $9,000 for his release, but that he was then sold to another group before being handed to police.

Another detained migrant said police opened fire into a room after migrants demanded medical care, killing two people and wounding dozens. A 25-year-old Eritrean woman told AFP she was raped by smugglers in Sudan and later by two armed guards after entering Libya. She said she is now pregnant.

The UN said in February that migrants in Libya face “systematic and widespread human rights violations and abuses” across a network of about 40 detention centres. It has said torture, slavery and sexual violence have become a brutal and normalised reality.

Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told AFP the alleged abuses were “deplorable acts” for which Libyan authorities were responsible. Libyan authorities did not respond to AFP requests for comment.