Brussels, 5 June 2026
The International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD) expresses its deep alarm over the growing wave of hate speech, racist incitement, and violence targeting Sub-Saharan African migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers across Libya.
Recent incidents and public discourse have once again exposed the dangerous normalization of xenophobia and anti-Black racism within Libya. However, these developments should not be viewed as an isolated or sudden phenomenon. They are the consequence of years of dehumanization, exploitation, and abuse directed against African communities, often carried out with impunity.
For more than a decade, international organizations, journalists, and human rights defenders have documented arbitrary detention, torture, extortion, sexual violence, forced labor, and slave markets involving African migrants in Libya. The current rise in populist rhetoric and hate-driven attacks emerges from this longstanding environment, where the lives and dignity of Black Africans have repeatedly been treated as expendable.
IFRD warns that political actors who exploit economic hardship, insecurity, and social tensions by blaming migrants are contributing to a dangerous cycle of scapegoating that risks further violence. Such narratives not only violate fundamental human rights principles but also undermine prospects for stability, social cohesion, and accountable governance.
IFRD further notes that European migration policies have, for years, contributed to the externalization of border control into Libya without adequately addressing the severe human rights consequences faced by migrants intercepted, detained, or stranded within the country. Efforts aimed solely at preventing migration while overlooking systemic abuses have helped sustain conditions in which exploitation and violence can flourish.
The international community must recognize that the targeting of Sub-Saharan Africans in Libya is not merely a migration issue. It is a human rights crisis rooted in structural racism, impunity, armed conflict, weak institutions, and the commodification of vulnerable human beings.
IFRD calls upon:
- Libyan authorities and all de facto governing entities to publicly condemn racist rhetoric, incitement to violence, and hate crimes against African communities.
- Judicial and law enforcement institutions to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of racially motivated violence and abuse.
- European institutions and member states to ensure that migration cooperation with Libya is fully conditioned on measurable human rights safeguards and accountability mechanisms.
- The African Union, United Nations, and international human rights bodies to strengthen monitoring and protection mechanisms for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Libya.
- Civil society organizations, community leaders, and media outlets to reject narratives that dehumanize migrants and instead promote human dignity, equality, and social solidarity.
Every individual, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or migration status, possesses inherent dignity and rights. The normalization of anti-African racism in Libya must not be ignored, excused, or tolerated.
IFRD stands in solidarity with all victims of racist violence, discrimination, trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation, and reiterates its commitment to advancing accountability, human dignity, and the protection of vulnerable populations throughout the Euro-Mediterranean, African, and Middle Eastern regions.
International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD)
