Libya has illegally expelled at least 1,400 migrants and refugees this year, the UN human rights office says. The forced returns during the COVID-19 pandemic put migrants at risk of human rights violations and should be stopped, it says.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, says it is “concerned” about the expulsions of hundreds of people this year from eastern Libya.

“The number that I have … from the start of the year (is) 1,400 migrants and refugees,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the OHCHR, told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

“Such practices violate Libya’s international human rights obligations prohibiting refoulement (returning migrants to a country where they may face persecution) and collective expulsion,” he added.

Most of those expelled from Libya were sent to Sudan, Niger, Chad and Somalia, according to the OHCHR.

The Libyan government said this month it had “evacuated” 160 Sudanese migrants. According to OCHCR monitors, the migrants were deported without access to asylum or other protection needs, legal assistance or other safeguards.