European governments who reject asylum seekers arriving by boat create circumstances where people are vulnerable to the activities of the gangs who run the detention centres.

[1][2] In 2014, armed conflict exacerbated lawlessness in Libya creating conditions where gangs can abduct migrants and detain them in camps with relative impunity.

[3][2][6] In 2018, Médecins Sans Frontières described "kidnapping for ransom" as a thriving business and criticized European Union-sponsored policies to deter refugees and migrants from traveling to Europe.

[7] The camps are run by Islamist militias, smuggling gangs, and the Libyan Coast Guard, which itself works outside the normal context of an institutionalized control of a formal central government guidance while being usurped by different local milita leaders [8][4][6] After migrants are abducted, detention center staff telephone the prisoners' families to demand ransoms.

[12] On 2 July 2019 at 23:30,[13] during the 2019–20 Western Libya campaign, an airstrike hit the Tajoura Detention Center, outside Tripoli, while hundreds of people were inside the facility.

[17] A leaked 2017 report from Germany’s Foreign Ministry detailed human rights abuses, and photographic evidence of "concentration camp like conditions.”[4] In 2018, Médecins Sans Frontières condemned arbitrary detention of people and spoke out about the need for protection and humanitarian aid.”[4] In 2019, following the 2019 Tajoura migrant centre airstrike a joint statement from the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called for "an immediate end to detention of migrants and refugees.

"[14] Human Rights Watch accused the European Union of "contributing to a cycle of extreme abuse" for its cooperation with authorities in Libya, and wrote that "The EU is providing support to the Libyan Coast Guard to enable it to intercept migrants and asylum seekers at sea after which they take them back to Libya to arbitrary detention, where they face inhuman and degrading conditions and the risk of torture, sexual violence, extortion, and forced labor.

[19][10] In July 2022, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution number 2647 which encouraged the Libyan authorities to close detention centres.