Locked up in a detention centre in Tripoli, 23-year-old Somalian Ali* was forced to take off his clothes and lie down to be beaten by the guards – every day for the nine months he spent in detention in Libya.

He survived on some bread and a small glass of water once a day and was taken outside once a week on Fridays. He was not allowed to exercise as the guards would think he was trying to escape. He had to wear the clothes he arrived in throughout the entire duration.

Now living in Malta, Ali’s sleep is disturbed by nightmares of when his father and three siblings were murdered by the Al- Shabab in Somalia (the Islamic militant group thought his family were Christians) and of his time spent in detention in Libya.

Ali’s story is just one of many featured in a damning study by the Mixed Migration Hub on the detention of young migrants in Libya.

The study is based on in-depth interviews with 45 former detainees who are currently living in Italy, Malta, France and the UK.

It reveals a consistent pattern of arbitrary detention and of people held for months at a time, without any form of due process in squalid, cramped conditions.

Read more in Times of Malta.