Photo Essay: Europe Outsourced Migration Control-Libya Holds Consequences

Inside a migrant detention center in Tajoura, Libya, men crowd the fence of their communal cell. Around a hundred are held together in the cramped space for months-some have been there for a year. They call out for help.

Many of the prisoners, most from sub-Saharan Africa, were intercepted at sea, but are now unable to leave without payment. For the first time in years, Libyan authorities have permitted limited access to detention centers long associated with abuse.

Standing at the crossroads between Africa and Europe, Libya has become a central front line in Europe's effort to curb migration. Despite the presence of militias, widespread reports of torture and abusive detention practices, several countries rely on Libya to enforce strict migration control policies. And they seem to be working-departures are down by around 50 percent. But at what human cost?

Photographer Samuel Gratacap's images move between detention centers, desert patrols and the coastline, tracing the routes migrants are forced along and revealing a geography of control, where journeys are interrupted, reversed or indefinitely delayed. They document a system built to contain movement-and the lives caught inside it.

Documentary Libya, the Migration Deadlock by Charles Emptaz and Samuel Gratacap will be broadcast on June 13 on Arte and arte.tv.

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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 5:00 AM.