Gender, racialisation and state violence in Tunisia and Libya
This report, produced by the RR[X] collective in partnership with ASGI, Border Forensics, The Routes Journal, On Borders and Melting Pot Europa, documents the systematic violence experienced by migrant women along the Tunisia-Libya route. Based on 33 testimonies collected between December 2024 and February 2026, it exposes a chain of detention, trafficking, sexual violence and exploitation involving both state and non-state actors.
The report identifies three interconnected stages of abuse: dehumanization, violence and prostitution. Women describe arrests, invasive searches, beatings, rape, forced transfers to Libya, detention, ransom demands and sexual exploitation. Many survivors recount being treated as commodities within a system where release often depends on payment or forced labour. It also highlights the responsibility of European migration policies, arguing that EU funding and border externalisation practices contribute to this system of state-sanctioned violence, while Tunisia continues to be presented as a “safe” country by European institutions. By centering survivors’ testimonies, the report reveals the human cost of current migration policies and the particular violence faced by racialised migrant women
The figure illustrates the widespread and pervasive nature of physical and sexual violence throughout the trafficking chain that the witnesses of the Women Stat Trafficking report have experienced and survived.
Report: https://statetrafficking.net
