DETAINED: Migration, Enslavement and Power in Libya After Muammar Gaddafi

Libya is a crucial case study for understanding international security concerns stemming from the emerging trend of external migration control. The outsourcing of border security to Libya continues the market of detainment developed under Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. We argue that this exploitation of migrants financially benefits competing actors in intra-state conflicts and terrorist organizations with global ambitions. We conduct a macro to micro analysis of detainment and captivity informed by a corpus of investigative reports and survivor testimony from 2011 to 2019. Through mapping sites of captivity, facility types, and the conditions of abuse, we establish that the treatment of detainees across both official and illicit channels constitute conditions of enslavement and abuse-for-profit. Decentralized mechanisms of detainment directly benefit militant, criminal, and terrorist actors vying for power. This realization imposes us to consider the implications of outsourcing migration control against the backdrop of verified human rights abuse, counterterrorism concerns, and global insecurity.

https://www.isanet.org/Conferences/ISA2021