Rights plea made to end Libyan abuse of migrants

Human Rights Watch says the world must do more to help end rights abuses in chaotic Libya, which has emerged as one of the main corridors for migration to Europe.

The Us-based group said in its annual report released yesterday most of more than 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers who reached Europe last year by sea departed from Libya, where they face beatings, extortion, sexual violence, and forced labour at the hands of armed groups.

Eric Goldstein, from the New York-based rights group, said: “The migration crisis in the central Mediterranean shows the rest of the world that it is ignoring Libya’s human rights disaster at its own peril.”

Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 uprising that killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi.