Nearly 4,000 migrants reportedly rounded up in two-day Tobruk crackdown

Nearly 4,000 migrants were reportedly rounded up in and around Tobruk in eastern Libya within two days as Libyan security forces intensified a campaign targeting people described by authorities as undocumented migrants.

The developments were reported in a series of posts by Jihed (@brirmijihed), a hacktivist and PhD researcher focusing on the bioprotection of plants. The posts described the campaign as a large-scale operation involving arrests on land and interceptions at sea.

According to Jihed, the spokesperson for the Al-Batnan Security Directorate, Lt. Issa Al-Jarari, confirmed that nearly 4,000 migrants had been detained over two days, loaded onto trucks and removed from Tobruk.

The claims come amid a major security operation in the Al-Batnan district. Independent reporting on September 25 confirmed that more than 2,000 migrants had been apprehended in a matter of hours during an operation involving police, military police and the 519th Infantry Battalion. (Agenzia Nova)

The Al-Batnan Security Directorate said those detained were people of different nationalities whom authorities considered to be residing in Libya irregularly. They were reportedly handed over to the Authority for Combating Illegal Migration for administrative procedures and transfer out of Tobruk. The Libyan Red Crescent provided medical and humanitarian assistance during the operation. (Agenzia Nova)

Jihed said the first day of the campaign alone saw around 2,000 people rounded up, describing the operation as a mass-arrest campaign feeding into Libya’s system of detention and deportation.

Sea interceptions

The crackdown has also coincided with interceptions of migrant boats attempting to leave the Tobruk area.

In another post, Jihed reported that on 24 September, the Coastal Security branch in Tobruk intercepted a boat carrying 38 Sudanese nationals off Ain al-Ghazala. The migrants were subsequently taken ashore.

He also reported that on 23 September, the Al-Saiqa Special Forces intercepted a boat carrying 30 people approximately four nautical miles off Tobruk.

The incidents highlight the dual approach being used in eastern Libya, with security forces targeting migrants both on land and at sea.

Tobruk has become an increasingly important departure point for the maritime route towards Crete. Recent reporting said more than 2,000 migrants were detained during the latest Al-Batnan operation as pressure increased along the Tobruk-Crete route. (Agenzia Nova)

Concerns over detention and deportation

The latest arrests follow a series of migrant removals from eastern Libya. On September 19, the Al-Batnan branch of the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration said it had processed 202 migrants in two groups, with one group taken through the Emsaed border crossing with Egypt and another transferred to the Ganfouda detention and deportation centre near Benghazi. (LibyaReview)

Human rights organisations have previously raised concerns about large-scale arrests and removals in eastern Libya, particularly involving Sudanese nationals, and have called for individual screening and respect for the principle of non-refoulement before anyone is returned to a country where they may face persecution or serious harm. (Agenzia Nova)

While Libyan authorities have presented the operations as security and immigration-enforcement measures, Jihed characterised the campaign in strongly critical terms, alleging that the mass arrests amounted to organised persecution of migrants.

The reported scale of the operation, and the subsequent transfer of detainees into Libya’s detention system, is likely to intensify scrutiny of the treatment of migrants and refugees in eastern Libya.