It is estimated that about 6,000 people are currently locked up in 24 detention centers across Libya. Now the Libyan authorities are pondering their release following the airstrike on the Tajoura detention center.
Migrants are being allowed to leave the Tajoura detention center in the Libyan capital Tripoli, about two weeks after it was hit by an air strike which killed at least 53 people and injured 130 others. The UNHCR Libya is trying to register and provide assistance to many who have left but what will happen to them next?
The UN Migration Agency (IOM), following the migrant killing at the Tajoura detention center in Libya, said 3,000 migrants and refugees are still arbitrarily detained in and around Tripoli.
Migrants remained locked in and were later shot at by guards as a bomb blast hit the Tripoli detention center where they were being held on Wednesday morning. Survivors of the deadly airstrike, which has provoked an international outcry, are pleading for help from the UN.
The UN Security Council did not issue a statement condemning the bombing in Libya after the US reportedly did not endorse it. Washington earlier criticized the attack as 'abhorrent', but did not call for a ceasefire.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has expressed interest in a proposal for a humanitarian corridor from Libya, the Comunità di Sant'Egidio said Thursday.
Many Somali refugees have decided to return home from Yemen because of the worsening security situation, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR reports. Last week, 125 refugees boarded a ship to return to Somalia.
Thousands of detained migrants, mostly Ethiopians, are facing serious health risks in Yemen. The UN is calling for the release of the detainees, including several hundred children. There are also concerns that some of the migrants are being forcibly recruited to fight in the civil war.
Indiscriminate bombing is continuing, including on residential areas, according to humanitarian agency OCHA. Over 3,000 refugees and migrants are stuck near the frontline.
Nearly three weeks since fighting began near the Libyan capital Tripoli, the United Nations warned that refugees and migrants remain exposed to clashes. According to the UN's refugee agency, some 3,600 of them are trapped in detention centers near the frontline.
An escalation of fighting in Libya is threatening to turn into "an all-out conflict," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned. An airstrike near Tripoli has shut down the capital's only functioning airport.
Eight years since a NATO-led intervention helped oust Moammar Gadhafi, Libya is mired in civil war involving multiple armed groups and rival governments pitted against each other. DW explains the basics of the conflict.