UN report finds women migrants in Libya often face gang rape

The United Nations says interviews of migrants who passed through Libya show that the "overwhelming majority" of women and older girls reported being gang-raped by traffickers or witnessed others taken away to be abused.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said a new report issued Thursday along with the UN support mission in Libya turned up "unimaginable horrors" among migrants who seek to reach Europe through largely lawless Libya.

The report covers January 2017 to August 2018.

A statement said investigators pulled together 1,300 first-hand accounts for report detailing "a terrible litany of violations and abuses committed by a range of state officials, armed groups, smugglers and traffickers against migrants and refugees." Those included unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, gang rape, slavery, forced labor and extortion.