TRIPOLI - UNSMIL welcomes today’s Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum in Tripoli. The forum can serve as an important opportunity to take forward a human rights-based approach to migration governance. 

The Mission reinforces the need for a concerted international effort based on shared responsibility and full respect for human rights to address current challenges. UNSMIL stands ready to support initiatives aimed at implementing a rights-based approach to the complex reality of migration. 

The UN in Libya calls on Libyan authorities to adopt a comprehensive legal and policy framework on migrants and refugees in line with Libya’s international human rights and refugee law obligations. This includes finding alternatives to detention, ending immigration detention of children and victims of trafficking, expanding safe and regular migration pathways, regularizing migrant labor through schemes that uphold their rights, and implementing rights-compliant border management.

UNOHCHR recently issued a report documenting challenges and human rights concerns faced by migrants and refugees in Libya. The report emphasizes the need for concerted international cooperation to address urgent human rights, humanitarian and protection issues, ensuring the safety and dignity of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Libya.