On World Refugee Day, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) expresses its profound concern at the ongoing and widespread violations of the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants across North Africa, particularly in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Rather than providing the protection guaranteed to them under international human rights and refugee law, the authorities in those three countries are undermining the human rights of those seeking refuge and a life with dignity, particularly those coming from sub-Saharan Africa.
The deterioration of the situation of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in North Africa results, in part, from the implementation by the European Union (EU) and its Member States of policies aimed at fighting “irregular” migration and “externalizing border control”, including the processing of asylum claims. Several “partnership agreements” and memoranda of understanding were signed or are expected to be signed between the EU – and/or some of its Member States – and Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, respectively. These agreements ensure support, including financial, in order to prevent refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from reaching Europe, without any concrete safeguards to ensure that the authorities respect and protect their human rights.
On World Refugee Day, the ICJ underscores the urgent need for meaningful action by States to uphold their legal obligations under international refugee and human rights law. The ICJ calls on Egypt and Tunisia to fully implement the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and on Libya to accede to both instruments. The three States must guarantee the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in accordance with their international legal obligations, including the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution, compliance with the non-refoulement principle, and the rights to liberty and security, access to justice and effective remedies, freedom from torture or other ill-treatment, freedom from discrimination, dignity, education, housing and other essential economic and social rights.
Additionally, the ICJ calls on the EU and EU Member States to:
- place human rights at the centre of future agreements on migration;
- provide comprehensive human rights risk assessments on the impact that such deals have on the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants; and
- ensure that any future cooperation with Egypt, Libya and Tunisia on migration, including policies and funding, fully safeguards the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
Under international law, including international human rights and refugee law, the non-refoulement principle prohibits the transfer of anyone, including refugees and asylum seekers, in any manner whatsoever, to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution or other grave human rights violations. Forced returns, as well as collective expulsions, without due process, violate the non-refoulement principle.
Egypt
Since 2024, the Egyptian authorities have increasingly violated the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the country, including through arbitrary arrests and detentions, and illegal deportations in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. In many cases, these violations were carried out despite victims being recognized as refugees and in possession of valid Egyptian residency permits.
Furthermore, on 16 December 2024, Egypt promulgated a new asylum law, which transferred the responsibility for registering asylum seekers and refugees and determining their asylum claims from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the Egyptian authorities. The law has been widely criticized by UN experts and civil society organizations for failing to prohibit refoulement or to provide procedural safeguards to those applying for asylum. As a result, the new asylum law enhances the risk of further unlawful removals from the country due to the overbroad and vague powers that it confers upon the authorities. Among other things, the authorities are empowered to take measures to deny and revoke refugee status and forcibly return refugees and asylum seekers, including in instances where the authorities deem that the individuals concerned have failed to respect “the values and traditions of Egyptian society”.
Egypt is a State Party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, under which it must ensure international protection to refugees and respect their human rights, including to due process, property, freedom of association, access to courts, education and work.
Libya
The situation of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Libya remains particularly dire, especially for women and those from sub-Saharan Africa. The Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya (FFM), in its March 2023 report, documented overwhelming evidence of systematic torture and sexual slavery, among other violations, against migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in detention centres, which are nominally under authorities’ control (for example, the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration operating under the Ministry of Interior) even though some are, in fact, under the direct control of militias. According the same report, violations and abuses of human rights – at times amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity – include: arbitrary detention, torture, murder, rape, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, as well as the enslavement, including for sexual purposes, of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. The involvement in these abuses of State authorities, which are financially and materially supported by the European Union and its Member States, such as the Libyan Coast Guard, raises profound concerns about the complicity of the Libyan State and European institutions in the violations and crimes committed against migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Libya.
In March 2025, following a misinformation campaign on social media claiming that the Western Government of National Unity had agreed to resettle migrants in Libya, the country witnessed an escalation in arrests and violent attacks, including fatal ones targeting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, as well as hate speech inciting to racial discrimination and violence against Sub-Saharan Africans, creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Concomitantly, non-governmental organizations providing humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants were also targeted by smear campaigns. On 2 April 2025, 10 of them had their offices “closed” by the Tripoli-based Internal Security Agency, affiliated with the Libyan Presidential Council, forcing these organizations to suspend their operations, including the provision of basic medical care, further exacerbating the plight of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Although Libya is not a party to either the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, it is bound by the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, as well as by various other international human rights instruments. Despite their international human rights law obligations, the Libyan authorities have failed to take meaningful steps to implement them through domestic law or policy and have continued to criminalize “irregular entry” into the country, without exception, including for those in need of international protection.
Tunisia
Since 2023, the Tunisian authorities have perpetrated serious human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, in particular against those hailing from Sub-Saharan African, including beatings, other forms of ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, rape and other forms of sexual assault, as well as forced collective expulsions to the country’s borders with Libya and Algeria, in violation of the non-refoulement principle.
Since June 2024, refugees and asylum seekers entering Tunisian territory have been denied access to international protection, as the UNHCR had to suspend asylum determination procedures at the request of the Tunisian authorities, who have thus far failed to put in place any domestic asylum processing system in the country. The right to international protection, other refugee rights and more generally social services have also been undermined as NGOs providing support to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants have been targeted by arbitrary investigations and prosecutions, with several staff of these organizations having been arbitrarily detained for over a year.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; t: +41 22 979 3800, e: said.benarbia@icj.org
Nour Al Hajj, Communications & Advocacy Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; e: nour.alhajj@icj.org
