Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Libya Case Study: An Unending Crisis – Responses of Migrants, States and Organisations to the 2011 Libya Crisis

This case study was conducted for the EU-funded project ‘Migrants in Countries in Crisis: Supporting an Evidence-Based Approach for Effective and Cooperative State Action’. Six case studies were done under this project, to investigate the impacts of crises on migrants, particularly in the longer term.

The focus of the current case study is the political unrest in Libya that began with protests against Muammar Gaddafi in February 2011. With the fall of Gaddafi in August 2011, much of the international community considered the immediate humanitarian emergency to have ended, but political instability and conflict continued, reaching a state of civil war in 2014. The country remains unstable today. This case study centres on the migrants who were displaced by the 2011 crisis from five countries of origin (Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Ghana and Niger) and one country of transit (Tunisia).