Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.

Europe

Rights group blasts EU plans on halting Libya migrant exodus

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • bb739a53-
    Image 1 of 2

    FILE -- In this June 3, 2016 file photo, emergency services remove one of more than 100 bodies pulled from the Mediterranean Sea after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank, near the western city of Zwara, Libya. In a Wednesday, July 6, 2016 report, Human Rights Watch warned that EU measures on curbing the flow of migrants from Libya to the bloc risk condemning asylum-seekers to "violent abuse" by armed groups in the North African nation. The report, based on interviews conducted with migrants interviewed in June in the Italian island of Sicily, said the migrants had faced abuses, including "torture, rape and killings in squalid detention centers" before setting off on their perilous journey. (APTV via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

  • af0c0047-
    Image 2 of 2

    FILE -- In this June 2, 2016 file photo, the body of a migrant lays on the beach, one of more than 100 bodies pulled from the Mediterranean Sea after a smuggling boat carrying mainly African migrants sank, near the western city of Zwara, Libya. In a Wednesday, July 6, 2016 report, Human Rights Watch warned that EU measures on curbing the flow of migrants from Libya to the bloc risk condemning asylum-seekers to "violent abuse" by armed groups in the North African nation. The report, based on interviews conducted with migrants interviewed in June in the Italian island of Sicily, said the migrants had faced abuses, including "torture, rape and killings in squalid detention centers" before setting off on their perilous journey. (APTV via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

ISTANBUL – Human Rights Watch is warning that European Union measures on curbing the flow of migrants from Libya to the bloc risk condemning asylum-seekers to "violent abuse" by armed groups in the North African nation.

The New York-based rights group, in a new report released Wednesday, says the migrants had faced abuses, including "torture, rape and killings in squalid detention centers" before setting off on their perilous journey.

It says some had been detained after being intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guards at sea.

The HRW report is based on interviews conducted with migrants in June on the Italian island of Sicily.

Last month, the EU expanded its anti-smuggling operation in the central Mediterranean to include training Libyan coastal and naval forces, which are intercepting boats and returning migrants to Libya.

Close modal

Continue