Libya Route to Italy Becomes a Nightmare for Moroccan Migrants

A growing number of young Moroccans are attempting to reach Italy via Libya, using smuggling networks to cross into the country despite its security instability and political turmoil. For many, the journey ends not in Europe but in detention, extortion, and in some cases, death.

Sources with knowledge of the migration situation in Libya told Hespress Arabic that Moroccan migrants pay large sums to Libyan smuggling networks operating in the country. One network is led by a Libyan national known as “Al-Hajj Mouhand,” whose real name is listed as “W.H.” and who is based in Turkey. Two other separate networks are run by individuals known in migration circles as “Al-Hajj Abdullah” and “Al-Hajj Riad,” both also Libyan nationals.

The same sources told Hespress Arabic that social media platforms have become a key recruitment channel for these networks. Groups on various platforms publish trip details, prices, and routes. Success stories and videos shared by migrants who previously reached Italian shores fuel further demand for the networks’ services among Moroccan youth.

But the promised safe passage collapses once migrants arrive on Libyan soil. Sources told Hespress Arabic that migrants are robbed of their identity documents and money upon arrival, then handed over to human trafficking networks and armed militias, who hold them in detention centers largely outside the authority of Libyan state institutions.

“The Libya route is no longer a risky adventure,” sources told Hespress Arabic. 

“It has become a path toward forced detention and human trafficking, where the migrant and their family pay a steep price, in dignity, money, and often in life.”

The Libya-based watchdog organization “Crime Watch Libya” said in its 2025 annual report that last year saw a troubling rise in serious violations against migrants, including at sea, along smuggling routes, and inside detention facilities.

The report described the smuggling and trafficking system in Libya as a structured operation with a clear chain of command, spanning networks that stretch across the south, east, and west of the country, and involving transport, detention, exploitation, and ransom.

The organization said armed groups and security forces, including units affiliated with the Libyan Arab Armed Forces in the east and the Government of National Unity in the west, are involved in the system through protection, facilitation, or direct management of detention sites.