The Libyan odyssey: For Syrians stranded in Libya, Assad’s fall has not ended their journey home

When the Assad regime fell in 2024, hundreds of Syrian migrants in Libya took to the streets in celebration. In cities like Tripoli, Benghazi, and al-Khoms, Syrians raised flags, chanted ‘freedom’ and let off fireworks. Soon, they started to mull over the idea of returning home.

But returning hasn’t been easy. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa restored diplomatic ties with Tripoli in late 2025, hoping to address the status of Syrian migrants and bolster economic cooperation. The whereabouts of many Syrians in Libya remain unknown, and many families are calling for his government to intervene in their search for their missing loved ones. 

Today, Libya hosts approximately 16,000 Syrians who arrived in the North African country after a difficult journey, engaging with smugglers and other non-state actors. The downfall of Assad did not end their odyssey. Many still face extreme hardship, are missing, or are held in Libya’s infamous migrant detention centers.

Since the fall of its longtime dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011, Libya has been divided between two rival governing bodies. The UN-backed government of Abdulhamid Dbeibah controls the west of the country, including the capital, Tripoli. In eastern and southern Libya, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s self-proclaimed  ‘Libyan Arab Armed Forces’ (LAAF) are in control. Under these fractious conditions, a multimillion-dollar industry of smugglers and human traffickers has flourished, exploiting the vacuum of authority.

As of February 2026, there are approximately one million refugees in a country with a population of over 7 million. Many of them come from sub-Saharan Africa or the Middle East, hoping to reach Europe. Some are lucky enough to reach Italy. Others are either swallowed by the waves of the Mediterranean or end up being intercepted and detained by Libya’s coast guard, which is funded by the European Union, keen to stop migrant flows with the cooperation of the Libyan authorities. The coast guard has been accused by NGOs and activists of violating the rights of refugees, and their affiliates often ask the families of the detained for ransom. 

“Our mother passed away two months after his disappearance” 

A perilous journey

“Our mother passed away 2 months after his disappearance,” said Ahmed Khalof, the brother of a Syrian refugee in Libya whose whereabouts are unknown. “The emotional toll was too heavy for her to carry,” he continued. 

Khaldoun Khalof, 46, left Syria with another brother and nephew in April 2024. They boarded a plane from Damascus to Benghazi in search of refuge. They wanted to provide for their families, avoid conscription, and avoid fighting for the Assad regime. He planned to spend 15 days in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, before their Syrian smuggler coordinated their crossing through the Mediterranean. However, those 15 days turned into five difficult months, and the smuggler eventually absolved himself of any responsibility to oversee the crossing.

“My brother spent 5 difficult months in the Souq al-Juma’a area in Tripoli,” said Ahmed. “He made a couple of failed attempts at crossing the Mediterranean during that time… some of his fellow travelers drowned, but he survived.” 

After one of Khaldoun’s failed crossings, Ahmed said that his brother was imprisoned for 20 days in Ein Zara prison, southeast of Tripoli, after being intercepted. On another occasion, masked militiamen kidnapped him from his house in Souq al-Juma’a and robbed him. 

After surviving these close calls, Khaldoun eventually attempted one last voyage to get to Europe, resulting in his disappearance in the city of al-Khoms–more than 100 kilometers east of Tripoli. “My cousin and our nephew managed to reach Europe,” said Ahmed. “But the smuggler my brother dealt with did not live up to his promise.” Ahmed is still searching for Khaldoun.

Read more: Syrian refugees in Libyan prisons: Hostages for ransom

Missing and detained

But Khaldoun’s experience with unscrupulous smugglers is not unique. It is common for smugglers to renege on their promises to take Syrian refugees onto European shores. Essam is a Syrian father whose son, Ali (not his real name), is also missing in Libya. According to Essam, Ali’s Syrian smuggler took $10,000 to oversee his son’s arrival in Europe. Like Khaldoun, Ali wanted to cross the Mediterranean from Libya. When the smuggler broke his promise, Ali attempted the crossing himself.

“Their evening journey started at Ras Ejdeir on October 13, 2024,” Essam said. “Their boat sank at 10 pm after traveling 24 km from Libya’s coast. My brother was with him in the boat, and they were found the next day at 6 am. The report said that my son was found with two other individuals. Since then, I have received conflicting information about his status. Some people said he is in prison but is unreachable. Others say he isn’t.”

Many of those who fail to make the crossing to Europe end up in detention centers. As of 2025, there are 17 migrant detention centers in different parts of Libya, many of which are controlled by local militias, which run other clandestine centers. The official detention centers run by the Tripoli government are estimated to hold around 5,000 migrants, but the International Organization for Migration (IOM) believes many more are held in secret facilities. Torture and exploitation are common in the detention centers, and conditions are inhumane. 

“The last time I spoke to Khaldoun was during the evening of October 10, 2024,” said Ahmed, who is still searching for his brother. “He was held up at an abandoned warehouse in the city of Al-Khoms in Libya with fellow Syrians, Egyptians and Pakistanis…We have not heard anything from him since. To this day, we have no clue about his status.” 

Al-Khoms, the city where Ahmed last heard from his brother, is one of the infamous crossing points into Europe, where incidents of drowning are a regular occurrence. One such failed crossing cost the lives of 110 people in July 2019. The city also hosts the Souq al-Khamis detention center, which houses migrants who were intercepted at sea. It is believed that Khaldoun has been transferred to Souq al-Khamis.

Throughout Khaldoun’s disappearance, Ahmed has received numerous phone calls from anonymous individuals demanding ransom. These individuals provided conflicting information about his brother’s detention. Ahmed eventually reached out to a few Syrians he knew in Libya and asked them to visit these centers. They were told by the guards that the name of the person they were looking for did not match what was on the record. 

However, access to these centers appears arbitrary. Libyan authorities in Tripoli often change their policies regarding who gains access. In the past, they allowed Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to provide healthcare to migrants in detention centers in western Libya. This included Souq al-Khamis. However, in October 2025, Libyan authorities announced a unilateral termination of their relationship with MSF. This is part of their wider crackdown on civil society organizations that they deem a “threat” to Libyan society. Steve Purbrick, who headed MSF’s operation in Libya, revealed that local authorities provided “no reason” to “justify” the medical charity’s expulsion, putting detainees at even greater risk. 

MSF’s expulsion could have impacted another missing Syrian, Abu Baker Awedat, who suffers from a serious health condition. Fatema, his mother, worries that he could be in a Libyan detention center without receiving proper healthcare. According to Fatema, her son has had a brain cyst since childhood, which affects his vision. She says he takes medication to manage its effects, but fears that he might be running out. 

“My son left Libyan shores and was heading to Europe on the 23rd of September 2024, at 9 pm,” Fatema said. “I hoped for him to reach Germany to live a better life and deal with his health condition. But their boat was found the next day at 5 am, where 16 people drowned. Later that year, I received a message from a Facebook user. He sent me a picture of my son, telling me that he is in Warshafana prison in Western Libya, but I have not been able to talk to him.” 

An IOM source in Libya told Syria Direct that the organization’s access to detention centers was limited. Warshafana, according to the source, is one of the areas where the IOM has not obtained access. 

According to Mohamed Mustafa, head of documentation at Libya Crimes Watch (LCW), arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance remain a regular occurrence. LCW, a UK-based organization dedicated to monitoring crimes and human rights violations in Libya, continues to receive on-the-ground reports of such incidents.

“Throughout 2026, we have documented cases of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, committed in the context of inhumane detention conditions,” said Mustafa. He added that the “absence of independent oversight” and an “escalating climate of hate” toward migrants worsened the situation.

“Throughout 2026, we have documented cases of torture and other forms of ill-treatment…” 

Libya’s divided government further complicates efforts to address the situation. Jalal Harchaoui, a Libya analyst with the Royal United Services Institute, says that Libya’s migration industry experienced a shift in 2017. Before that year, Harchaoui notes that armed groups tended to help migrants cross into Europe. Today, they are less inclined to do so. 

“Driven in part by Italian intervention, most armed groups have instead focused on reducing the number of migrants reaching EU shores,” Harchaoui told Syria Direct. “Though a share of irregular migrants still receive help from those same groups to reach Malta, Greece, or Italy.”

Hope and despair

As many Syrian migrants in Libya weigh the decision to travel back home, families of Syrian detainees are hoping that their government puts more pressure on authorities in Tripoli. Syria Direct contacted the Syrian foreign ministry to ask what it is doing regarding repatriation but did not receive a response by the time of publication. However, there are some signs that the Syrian government is intervening. Recently, on August 17, the Syrian embassy in Tripoli announced that the chargé d’affaires, Sameer al-Shalabi, met Libyan Justice Minister Haleema Abdulrahman. The two parties discussed a joint legal effort to address the issue of missing Syrians and those who have been detained. 

But that is only in Tripoli. Al-Sharaa has less sway with Haftar’s rival government in eastern Libya, and there is little incentive for Haftar to engage with al-Sharaa. He had close ties with Syria’s ousted dictator, Bashar al-Assad, with both being allied with Russia. But even there, Damascus is trying.

Today, al-Sharaa and Haftar are engaging in difficult negotiations in the hope of releasing Syrian detainees. On July 12, a representative of the Syrian embassy’s consular affairs section visited eastern Libya’s Center for Combating Illegal Migration (LCCLM). The visit aimed to document the names of any Syrian detainees and potentially bring them home. On July 22, LCCLM was once again visited by the representative to finish up the repatriation process for the Syrian detainees. On July 25, the LCCLM announced that it had repatriated 13 Syrian migrants who were in the country illegally.

“I hope that our government’s efforts in Libya will bring more clarity to his situation.”

But then there is the question of what would happen if the Syrian government secured the release and return of larger numbers of detained Syrians. What does returning home mean? In post-Assad Syria, the situation on the ground is challenging. The conflict destroyed much of Syria’s infrastructure. According to the UN, 50 percent of it has either been damaged or destroyed. Today, the cost of reconstruction is estimated at around $216 billion. According to Joshua Landis, chair of the Department of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma, the government in Syria is at an economic disadvantage. Syrian returnees will face a difficult reality at home, he says.

“Al-Sharaa and Syria are overwhelmed with returning Syrians,” Landis told Syria Direct. “The government has neither the money nor capacity to provide housing for the many returnees. Many Syrians are still living in tents or bidonvilles (shantytowns). The UN has cut back on its assistance, and international agencies are working with less money. The situation is dire.”

Despite the challenges ahead, the families of the Syrian detainees long to see their loved ones. It is unclear, however, when that might happen. As the Syrian embassy in Tripoli opened its doors on August 30, the families of the missing are hoping that consular officials will bring their children home. 

“I pray to God to see my son again,” said Fatema. “I hope that our government’s efforts in Libya will bring more clarity to his situation.”