Inside Libya's Migrant Detention Centers

For more than a year, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been providing medical care to refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants held in inhumane conditions in detention centers in Libya.

This photo essay by Guillaume Binet, a French photojournalist and co-founder of Myop photo agency, presents a rare glimpse inside Libya's detention centers, including those where MSF provides urgently needed medical care. Binet traveled independently to Libya in March 2017 to document the plight of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers detained in Tripoli and its surroundings. 

Download the full photo essay here

Detainees suffer from ill-treatment and lack access to adequate medical care. Horrific conditions at the detention centers are directly linked to the majority of the physical and mental health problems for which detainees require medical attention. People are held arbitrarily, with no recourse to challenge the legality of their detention, and with virtually no access to consular services or the outside world.

Read: Libya Must End Arbitrary Detention of Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, and Migrants

With no rule of law in Libya, there is a disturbing lack of oversight of the harmful and exploitative detention system. Some people are held for prolonged periods of time; others are transferred between different detention centers, or are moved to undisclosed locations.

MSF has condemned European migration policies for fueling a criminal system of abuse and effectively trapping people in nightmarish conditions in Libya.