EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS: UN publishes damning report on ‘systematic’ abuse of people on the move in Libya ― Increase in arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations of people on the move in Egypt ― UN reaffirms support for authorities in Türkiye despite NG…

• A new United Nations report has highlighted the extent of human rights violations and abuses that are being committed against people on the move in Libya.
• The unlawful detention and deportation of people on the move in Egypt appears to have increased in recent months.
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has confirmed his commitment to supporting Türkiye amidst NGO criticism of the authorities’ actions.

A new United Nations (UN) report has highlighted the extent of human rights violations and abuses that are being committed against people on the move in Libya. The report, which was jointly published by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN Human Rights Agency (OHCHR), covers the period from January 2024 to December 2025 and is based on interviews with almost 100 people from 16 countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. It documents “systematic” violations, including killings, torture, sexual violence and trafficking. Commenting on the situation for people on the move in Libya, the UN human rights representative to the country, Suki Nagra said: “We’re seeing waves of racist and xenophobic hate speech and attacks against migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees, as well as interceptions at sea where people are brought back to Libya – which we do not consider a safe place for disembarkation and return”. “We recommend legal and policy changes to end the entrenched, exploitative business model driving these violations and abuses. A key area is accountability – holding security actors, traffickers, and complicit State-affiliated actors responsible,” she added. Her words were echoed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk: “There are no words to describe the never-ending nightmare these people are forced into, only to feed the mounting greed of traffickers and those in power profiting from a system of exploitation,” he said, adding: “The suffering of migrants and refugees in Libya must end”.

The unlawful detention and deportation of people on the move in Egypt appears to have increased in recent months. According to a press release issued by ECRE member organisation Amnesty International, since late December 2025, plainclothes police officers have been “arbitrarily rounding up nationals of Syria, Sudan, South Sudan and other Sub-Saharan countries from the streets or their workplaces in cities across the country following identity checks”. Commenting on the recent developments, Mahmoud Shalaby from Amnesty International said: “Refugees who have fled war, persecution or humanitarian crises should not be forced to live in daily fear of being arbitrarily arrested and deported back to a place where they are at risk of grave human rights violations”. “By forcibly expelling refugees and asylum seekers, Egyptian authorities are not only flagrantly flouting international human rights and refugee law, but they are also breaching the protections afforded in the country’s own recently passed asylum law prohibiting refoulment of recognised refugees,” he added.

Amnesty International’s claims were independently supported by both refugees themselves and human rights NGOs that advocate for them. Nasr Eddin, a 50-year-old Sudanese refugee who arrived in Egypt in 2016, told the Mada Masr newspaper: “We can’t move. People are being arrested whether they have papers or not. Many people I know have been detained. There’s a general state of terror. Some are afraid to leave their homes even to buy groceries. Police microbuses are constantly patrolling the streets”. Elsewhere, Karim Ennarah from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that the government had launched “broad campaigns targeting refugees with arrest, detention and deportation” since the second half of 2024 and that in January 2025, the pace of these operations had reached an “unprecedented level”

Shalaby also called on both the Egyptian authorities and the EU to take steps to end the current situation. In comments directed at the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, he said: “The Egyptian authorities must immediately release all refugees and asylum seekers arbitrarily detained solely on immigration grounds and halt deportations of anyone entitled to protection under international law”. He had a similarly clear message for the EU and other states: “As a close partner to Egypt on migration and major donor to UNHCR, the European Union should urge the Egyptian government to adopt concrete and verifiable measures to protect the rights of refugees and migrants as well as to ensure that UNHCR has unimpeded access to all places of detention where refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are held, and allow them to make their international protection claims and have these fairly assessed. The EU and other states must also step up responsibility-sharing by expanding resettlement opportunities and creating safe and regular pathways for people in need of international protection, including humanitarian visas, labour and student mobility schemes, and community sponsorship initiatives”.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has confirmed his commitment to supporting Türkiye’s efforts to host people on the move. Speaking at the end of a three-day visit to the country at the end of January, Barham Salih praised his hosts, saying: “Türkiye has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and solidarity by hosting millions of refugees for over a decade”. In a reference to the return of refugees from Türkiye to their countries of origin, he also stated that UNHCR remained “committed to supporting Türkiye in ensuring that refugees can make informed decisions, while continuing to protect and support those who cannot return”.

Salih’s positive sentiments about the Turkish government were not universally shared. In its annual review of minority and refugee rights in Türkiye that was published on 16 February, the democracy and human rights NGO the Stockholm Centre for Freedom, noted that “Minority groups, refugees and migrants in Turkey continued to face discrimination, violence and forced returns in 2025”. “Refugees held in deportation centers were allegedly beaten, deprived of basic needs and pressured into signing “voluntary” return documents. In one case Turkish authorities deported a Syrian mother, leaving her five children behind in Turkey,” it added.

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