Between 5,000 and 6,000 refugees and migrants are arbitrarily held in Libya’s detention centres nominally under the authority of Tripoli-based Ministry of Interior.

The conflict raging on since beginning of April between the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) has only made their situation even more perilous, despite repeated calls for protection and evacuations. Away from the battle area, hundreds remain locked up for indefinite period in harmful detention conditions, exposed to abuses and deaths, and driven into desperation.

900 people were detained in dire conditions in Zintan, south of Tripoli in the Nafusa mountains, when MSF first visited this detention centre end of May 2019. Some 30 were detained in Gharyan detention centre, a heavily militarized area.

MSF started to provide medical care (consultations and referrals to hospitals), food and items and to improve water and sewage system.

Between September 2018 and May 2019, at least 22 people died in detention, mostly from tuberculosis, in Zintan and Gharyan. Among the dead were young men, women, and a child of 8 years old.