Friday September 12, 2025
FILE - Somali-born businessman and political figure Abshir Aden Ferro, pictured in Paris on Sept. 28, 2020. erro recently traveled to Libya, where he said he helped secure the release of 400 migrants, including 50 women, from militia-run detention centers. Courtesy of Abshir Aden Ferro
Mogadishu (HOL) — A Somali businessman has secured the release of 400 migrants, including 50 women, from detention centers in Libya in what community leaders described as the largest collective release of its kind.
Abshir Aden Ferro, a Somali-born businessman and former French military officer now based in Europe, traveled to Tripoli in early August after learning that a 25-year-old relative had been abducted. Once in the coastal town of Tajoura, Ferro said he used his own resources to negotiate the release of not only his family member but also hundreds of other Somalis held by armed groups. He emphasized that no ransom was paid.
“I could not, in good conscience, leave the others behind,” Ferro said.
The head of the Somali community in Libya called the release unprecedented in scale.
Survivors who were freed described harrowing conditions. Halima, a 22-year-old who spent 18 months in captivity, said she survived on “a piece of bread and a glass of water a day.” Mohamed Abdullahi, 19, recalled being crammed into overcrowded cells and beaten when his family could not pay the ransom. “You were only lucky if your family could send money,” he said.
Ferro, the founder of “Cruzen Group,” a London-based security firm, said the experience left him “sick and traumatized” and criticized both Somali leaders and the international community for failing to address the plight of migrants. “By the grace of God, I happened to meet other victims, and we brought them out. But thousands more are still trapped, and their cries must not be ignored,” he said.
The United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly documented widespread abuse against migrants in Libya, including torture, forced labor, extortion, and sexual exploitation. The scale of the crisis is large. IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix counted about 867,000 migrants of 44 nationalities in Libya during March–April 2025. Separately, media reports, citing humanitarian organizers, say roughly 7,000 Somalis are missing or detained in militia-run or informal sites. Rights groups say European-backed migration control programs, which enable Libya’s coast guard to intercept migrant boats, have left thousands of Somalis and other Africans stranded in detention centers controlled by militias.
Humanitarian access has narrowed in 2025. In April, Libyan authorities ordered 10 international aid groups to suspend operations, a move aid agencies said would worsen conditions for migrants and reduce independent monitoring.
Libyan authorities have also announced periodic raids on extortion sites. On Aug. 29, Tripoli police said they freed 62 migrants—including Somalis—from a location in the Tajoura–Al-Naeam area where detainees were held to extract ransom from families.
While Ferro’s intervention brought relief to hundreds, aid organizations warn that it highlights a broader humanitarian crisis. Without safe migration pathways and stronger protections, thousands of Somali youth and other African migrants remain at risk of exploitation and abuse along one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.