The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Turk, announced that his office is investigating reports of a mass grave in the desert along the Libya-Tunisia border. This follows the discovery of at least 65 migrant bodies at another site earlier this year.
Turk condemned widespread abuses against migrants in Libya, a key transit route through the Sahara Desert and across the Mediterranean. He highlighted crimes such as human trafficking, torture, forced labor, extortion, starvation, detention, and mass expulsions, calling for swift investigations.
In March, 65 bodies were found in a mass grave in Libya’s al-Jahriya valley. Libya’s Justice Minister Halima Ibrahim Abdulrahman defended the country’s human rights record but did not directly address Turk’s comments. Tunisia’s ambassador also did not comment on Turk’s findings.
Libya and Tunisia are crucial to the EU’s efforts to control migrant flows from North Africa to Europe. Although a U.N. mission found evidence of crimes against humanity in Libya, it expired last year. However, Gambia has proposed providing assistance to improve Libya’s human rights record.