By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Human Rights Association (HRA) of South Africa has issued a strong call on the Libyan authorities to immediately release Sierra Leonean nationals being held in arbitrary detention and intensify efforts to dismantle human trafficking networks accused of exploiting vulnerable migrants from Sierra Leone and across West Africa.
In a statement released from Cape Town in May 27, 2026, HRA Chairman, Saad Kassis-Mohamed, expressed grave concern over what the organisation described as a widespread system of abuse, trafficking, extortion and unlawful detention targeting migrants in Libya. The association urged Libyan authorities to cooperate fully with the United Nations and relevant international agencies in protecting migrants and facilitating the safe and voluntary repatriation of Sierra Leoneans who wish to return home.
According to the Human Rights Association, many Sierra Leoneans continue to undertake perilous journeys through Guinea, Mali and the Sahara Desert in pursuit of opportunities in Europe. However, the organisation noted that instead of finding a pathway to better opportunities, many migrants become trapped in trafficking networks that subject them to severe human rights abuses, including abduction, torture, sexual violence, forced labour and extortion.
The organisation cited several documented accounts involving Sierra Leonean nationals who survived trafficking operations in Libya. Among them is a woman identified as Aminata, who reportedly left Freetown in 2025 following the death of her husband with the hope of reaching Europe and supporting her three children. The Human Rights Association stated that shortly after entering Libya through the southern desert route, she was intercepted by an armed group and detained alongside dozens of other women from West Africa.
According to the report, Aminata was subjected to repeated sexual violence while her captors contacted her family in Freetown demanding ransom for her release. Unable to raise the required funds, her family could not secure her freedom. She was subsequently sold to another trafficking group operating in western Libya, where she was allegedly forced into domestic servitude without pay or freedom of movement. After months of detention and exploitation, she eventually returned to Sierra Leone but reportedly received no formal support to address the trauma she experienced.
The Human Rights Association also highlighted the case of Foday, a young man from Kenema who was reportedly intercepted near the Niger-Libya border and taken to a detention facility housing more than 300 migrants from West and Central Africa. The report states that he endured daily beatings and survived on minimal food and water during his three-month detention before being sold to traffickers who demanded payment from his family. Although his relatives eventually secured his release through borrowed funds, he returned to Sierra Leone burdened by debt and lasting physical and psychological scars.
The Human Rights Association stressed that those accounts are not isolated incidents but reflect a broader pattern of abuse within Libya’s migrant trafficking system. The organisation further alleged that documented evidence indicates the involvement of some Libyan military and security personnel in trafficking activities, including the sale of migrants in their custody to civilian trafficking networks operating elsewhere in the country.
Referencing a February 2026 United Nations report on migrants in Libya, the Human Rights Association noted that the trafficking system has evolved into what has been described as a violent and normalized business model. The organisation maintained that Sierra Leonean nationals are among the groups most consistently exposed to some of the worst documented abuses within that system.
Saad Kassis-Mohamed attributed the continued flow of Sierra Leonean migrants through Libya to persistent economic challenges, high unemployment levels and limited formal employment opportunities at home. He observed that trafficking networks deliberately exploit the aspirations of young people seeking better livelihoods abroad by portraying the Libyan route as a manageable pathway to Europe.
The Human Rights Association concluded by calling on Libyan authorities to release all Sierra Leonean nationals held in arbitrary detention, dismantle trafficking and extortion networks, prosecute military and security personnel implicated in migrant trafficking and work closely with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and other international human rights mechanisms to facilitate the safe return of Sierra Leonean migrants who wish to return home.
The organisation reiterated that protecting migrants from trafficking, exploitation and unlawful detention remains a legal and humanitarian obligation under international law and urged swift action to address what it described as an ongoing human rights crisis affecting Sierra Leoneans and other African migrants in Libya.
