Libya

As per the 2023 Humanitarian Overview, an estimated 300,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Libya. Asylum-seekers, refugees, migrants, and displaced Libyans are among those with heightened protection risks. They live in unsafe conditions with little or no access to health care, essential medicines, food, safe drinking water, shelter, or education.

Our overall objective in Libya is to improve protection and life-saving assistance for refugees, asylum-seekers, displaced people, and host communities. This includes supporting local public services which benefit the whole community, such as hospitals and schools. Pursuing durable solutions outside Libya for asylum-seekers and refugees with heightened protection risks is also an important priority.

Libya hosts 40,540 refugees and asylum-seekers who are registered with UNHCR. The country also presents a complex displacement scenario, with 134,787 people displaced inside the country (IDPs) and 695,516 people who have returned home (returnees).

In urban areas, we work in Community Day Centre, and we use telephone hotlines and outreach visits to help identify, register, and assist people in need of international protection. We are advocating for alternatives to detention, including care arrangements for children and family tracing. At detention centres, we provide humanitarian assistance and advocate for enhanced access to screening and identification. Our work at disembarkation points we have access to focuses on providing life-saving assistance to people and protection monitoring to identify those in need of international protection, including unaccompanied and separated children, elderly people, individuals with medical needs, women at risk or survivors of trafficking. 

We continue to seek durable solutions, such as resettlement, evacuation, and complementary pathways, for refugees and asylum-seekers, giving particular attention to people most in need. We are urging countries to provide more durable solutions out of Libya so that we can help as many people as possible.

Supporting IDPs is also a priority for us, and we provide them with non-food items, cash assistance and shelter rehabilitation. We are also using Quick Impact Projects (QIPs), which are small and rapidly implemented projects aimed at helping create more stable conditions in the longer-term while fostering peaceful coexistence. They allow communities to take advantage of development opportunities, help strengthen the resilience of communities and nurture a community spirit. Together with the communities and partners, we identify suitable projects to implement, mainly within the health, education, or water and sanitation sectors.

Additional information

For information about our work in Libya: