The chairman of the Human Rights Association (HRA), an independent international human rights organisation active across Africa, South Asia, and the Gulf region, yesterday issued a press release calling on the Libyan authorities to immediately release all Gambian nationals held in arbitrary detention across Libya’s network of official, unofficial, and militia-controlled detention facilities.
Chairman Kassis-Mohamed also called for an end to the systematic abuse, torture, forced labour, and ransom extortion to which Gambian migrants are being subjected.
In the statement, the Turkey-based NGO HRA stated: “[Our] statement is grounded in a joint report published in February 2026 by the United Nations Human Rights Office and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, which documents what the UN describes as a violent business model targeting migrants. The report includes direct testimony from named Gambian nationals. One, identified as Lamin, described guards breaking his teeth, beating detainees, and stealing their belongings, and stated that he accepted deportation solely to escape the abuse. Another, identified as Ebrima, described being arrested at sea, imprisoned without due process, and deported to The Gambia without being told what he was signing.
“Since 2015, at least 3,300 Gambian nationals have been repatriated from Libya through assisted return programmes. In February 2026 alone, Libyan authorities detained over 2,000 migrants in mass raids in Sebha after demolishing their homes, with reports indicating that as many as 1,000 people may have gone missing. Two mass graves containing the bodies of migrants, some bearing evidence of gunshot wounds, were uncovered in south-eastern Libya in the same month.
“The raids took place in an area where numerous cases of violence against migrants have been documented by international human rights organisations. In February 2026, investigators also uncovered two mass graves in southeastern Libya containing the bodies of dozens of migrants, some bearing evidence of gunshot wounds.
Chairman Kassis-Mohamed further stated: “The Libyan authorities have a legal obligation under international human rights law to release every individual held in arbitrary detention, to end these practices, and to hold those responsible to account. The HRA will not remain silent while Gambian nationals continue to suffer in these conditions.”
It urged the Libyan authorities to ensure that all returns of migrants to their countries of origin are genuinely voluntary and conducted with full, prior, and informed consent; and to cooperate fully with the United Nations human rights mechanisms that have documented these abuses.
