Forensic Architecture

“Escaping Libya’s Detention Industry”

“Using 3D digital modelling and satellite imagery, in collaboration with Lawyers for Justice in Libya and supported by Forensic Architecture, we interviewed survivors of the brutal network of detention centres, as well as local experts. Their testimonies reveal the evolution of Libya’s ‘detention industry”.

At night, Martin successfully escaped Ain Zara, running with other detainees far from the detention centre.

WATCH TEH FULL VIDEO HERE: https://forensic-architecture.org

Since the collapse of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been a key transit country for refugees and migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe. In the political and economic vacuum which followed the uprising and the collapse of Gaddafi’s state, smuggling and trafficking expanded, upending the patchwork of agreements by which Europe sought to close its southern maritime borders.

By 2015, EU migration policy increasingly focused on ‘externalisation’ of its borders, preventing refugees and migrants from crossing the Mediterranean through deals with states including Libya. EU agencies and member states sought to support and equip Libyan actors to prevent crossings, as well as supporting state-affiliated detention centres, where refugees and migrants would be taken.

Libya has no refugee law, and no asylum system. As a result, refugees and migrants are automatically illegalised, and can be subjected to indefinite detention in centres like Al Mayah and Ain Zara.

CREDITS:

Forensis

Project Coordinator Phoebe Walton

Research Celina Abba Georgia Skartadou

Project Supervision Stefanos Levidis

Project Support Veronika Rau

Forensic Architecture

Researcher-in-Charge Robert Trafford

Lawyers for Justice in Libya

Project Lead Mehdi Ben Youssef

Project Support Serena Zanirato Merna Nasralla

Project and Communications Support Alexandra Azua