Reports of plans to deport migrants from the U.S. to Libya , a country with a documented history of serious human rights violations and abuse of migrants , have spotlighted the difficulties they face in the lawless North African nation .
Migrants in Libya are routinely arbitrarily detained and placed in squalid detention centers where they are subjected to extortion, abuse, rape and killings.
A U.N.-backed, independent fact-finding mission found evidence that crimes against humanity had been committed against migrants in Libya. Victims were subjected to enslavement, forced disappearance, torture and murder, among other crimes, the investigators found. Dead migrants have been found in mass graves across the country, while tens of thousands of others have drowned trying to escape Libya on smugglers' boats.
"It's hell on earth for migrants," said Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"All they will have are different forms of abuse - if they are lucky enough, they will end up on a rickety boat in the Mediterranean," added Megerisi, who is Libyan.