Libya

Cramped Detention Centres

MSF continues to provide medical care to refugees and migrants detained in Libya. We run mobile clinics in migrant detention centres located in and around the capital, Tripoli.Libya’s detention centres are nominally under the control of the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM), and do not meet any national, regional or international health or humanitarian standards.  Medical complaints are mostly related to appalling conditions inside extremely overcrowded detention centres: lice, scabies and flees are rife and significant numbers of detainees suffer from nutritional deficiencies and the lack of safe drinking water. Our teams treat a wide range of common and preventable diseases, including skin disease, acute malnutrition, diarrhoeal disease, as well as respiratory and urinary tract infections.

MSF runs psychosocial activities in detention centres and carries out individual counselling sessions. A large number of refugees suffer from suicidal thoughts, difficulty sleeping, post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), panic attacks, depression and anxiety. The majority of migrants and refugees in Libya live outside detention centres and, like the local communities, are affected by the deterioration in public health infrastructure, which includes drug and staff shortages. In Misrata, MSF opened an outpatient clinic offering free, primary healthcare and referrals to patients of all ages and nationalities.