"Get free or die trying," runs a graffito in English on the wall of a migrants' detention centre on the outskirts of Tripoli, Libya's capital. The author was one of the countless migrants to pass through the fetid, overcrowded facility, his fate unknown. Some of the people herded into more than 20 such centres across Libya were intercepted by Libyan naval vessels as they attempted the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. Others were arrested before reaching the sea by Libyan militias that have held sway since the revolution that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Thanks to its oil wealth, Libya has long been a magnet for migrants from farther south. Under Qaddafi, they numbered between 1.5m and 2.5m in a country whose indigenous population was around 6m. Nobody nowadays has reliable figures. Fewer people from sub-Saharan Africa are looking for work in Libya, because it is so chaotic. But the borders have become even more porous. Libya is now almost certainly the busiest transit route for black Africans heading illegally to Europe.
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