Mixed Migration Trends in Libya: Changing Dynamics and Protection Challenges

A study of mixed refugee and migrant flows by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has found that around half of those travelling to Libya do so believing they can find jobs there, but end up fleeing onwards to Europe to escape life-threatening insecurity, instability, difficult economic conditions plus widespread exploitation and abuse.

Foreign nationals going to Libya are part of mixed migration flows, meaning that people with different backgrounds and motivations travel together along the same routes, often with the help of ruthless people smugglers and criminal gangs. They include refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants, unaccompanied minors, environmental migrants, victims of trafficking and stranded migrants, among others.

In recent years, the number of people crossing by sea from North Africa to southern Europe has increased. The indications are that this trend is likely to continue. Of the three main routes used by refugees and migrants to reach Europe – the Western Mediterranean route, the Central Mediterranean route and the Eastern Mediterranean route– Libya has become the most commonly used one, and also the deadliest.

The study commissioned by UNHCR found that the profiles and nationalities of people arriving in Libya have been evolving over the past few years, with a marked decrease in those originating in East Africa and an increase in those from West Africa, who now represent well over half of all arrivals to Europe through the Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy (over 100,000 arrivals in 2016).