HRC63: ICJ and HRW Call for Protection of Black African Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Tunisia and Libya

The International Commission of Jurists and Human Rights Watch addressed the Working Group on the situation of Black African migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Tunisia and Libya. Since 2023, Tunisian authorities have subjected these groups to arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, sexual violence, and collective expulsion following an agreement with the EU aimed at controlling irregular arrivals. Authorities have also targeted associations supporting migrants and refugees by pursuing abusive prosecutions and detentions, including a case against Saadia Mosbah of Mnemty concerning human rights work. In Libya, EU and Member States are reportedly supporting Western and Eastern authorities despite widespread abuse that enables interceptions at sea and forcible returns, resulting in arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, enslavement, refoulement, and unlawful killings. Furthermore, the International Criminal Court confirmed charges against Khaled El Hishri for crimes committed at Mitiga Prison, noting that "Black migrants" were specifically targeted for enslavement and persecution based on race, ethnicity, and nationality. European border control policies have also intensified hate speech and racist attacks against Black persons in both countries. The speakers called for the Council and Member States to compel Tunisia and Libya to uphold the rights of these migrants and to halt the outsourcing of migration control to authorities engaging in abuses.

The narrative links international migration policy, internal state action, and transnational legal accountability concerning specific racial and ethnic groups within the Mediterranean context. A key pattern emerges where stated goals (e.g., EU agreements to stem flow) appear to operate in tension with documented outcomes of systemic abuse against migrants and asylum seekers. The mechanism described involves a shift from external control to internal victimization, where border management policies are leveraged to justify or facilitate severe human rights violations against vulnerable populations. Furthermore, the specific mention of targeting "Black migrants" for enslavement highlights how racial categorization functions as a primary vector for state-sanctioned violence and legal targeting across jurisdictions. The call to stop outsourcing migration control suggests a critique of externalizing responsibility while simultaneously acknowledging that local authorities are the perpetrators of these abuses. This points toward a systemic failure where geopolitical and security concerns create environments ripe for racialized exploitation, requiring an examination of how international frameworks manage accountability when actors operate across multiple legal systems with differing levels of enforcement. What mechanisms exist to ensure that anti-migration efforts do not become tools for reinforcing existing structures of racial and ethnic persecution?