Thousands of refugees and migrants have been camped out in front of a United Nations centre in Tripoli for three weeks, calling for evacuation from Libya in the wake of sweeping raids that saw thousands arrested.

The Acting Special Representative of UNICEF in Libya, Cristina Brugiolo, called for the immediate release of minors in immigration detention centers in Libya, stressing that UNICEF is ready with its partners to provide technical support, including alternative childcare arrangements for this group.

A Sudanese migrant was beaten, shot and killed in Libya after escaping from a government-run detention centre in the North African country, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) yesterday warned of the “immediate danger” to the safety and wellbeing of at least 1,000 women and children detained in refugee detention centres in Libya.

Libya’s interior ministry on Saturday denied any excessive use of force following the mass escape of migrants from a Tripoli detention facility, where several were shot dead according to the IOM.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that five irregular migrants were killed, on Friday, after a shooting incident inside a detention center in Libya.

After unprecedented raids in western Libya, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that detained migrants are reporting serious abuse, violence and a lack of access to basic services.

A UN migration agency official expressed concerns Friday over the disappearance of thousands of Europe-bound migrants who were intercepted and returned to Libya as more and more desperate people risk their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Libyan authorities have been accused by a European human rights monitor of holding hundreds of Moroccan migrants in inhumane conditions without legal justification for months.

A photographer arrested in eastern Libya in 2018 and jailed by a military tribunal has been released under an amnesty ordered by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar, official sources said Sunday.