Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Libya (Ratification: 1961)

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. 1. Freedom of career members of the armed forces to leave their employment. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes that section 71 of Act No. 40 of 1974 regarding service in the armed forces, has been amended by Act No. 7 of 2007, and now provides that the resignation of members of the armed forces shall be accepted without any financial implications for them, before they have completed the legal period provided for in the contract. The Committee takes due note of this amendment and requests the Government to provide information on the application in practice of section 71, indicating the number of resignations submitted, the number of those requests that were accepted or rejected, as well as the grounds for the rejections.

2. Freedom of domestic workers to leave their employment. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that it will take measures to formulate sections in the new draft labour law to cover domestic workers, as is the case in Law No. 12 on Labour Relations, 2010. This will ensure that domestic workers continue to enjoy the same rights as other workers, including as regards employment contracts, social security and the right to join a trade union. The Committee once again expresses the hope that the new draft labour law will apply to domestic workers and requests the Government to provide information on the progress made in this regard.

3. Vulnerable situation of migrant workers. According to a 2022 ILO report on labour market access for migrants in Libya, migrants, who continue to be attracted in large numbers to Libya, frequently engage in low-skilled and unstable forms of economic activities and benefit from little to no protection. The findings of the report emphasize the important role of informal labour intermediation in migrants’ access to the labour market in Libya – which includes the payment of recruitment fees for more than a fifth of the migrants interviewed – and indicate that unregulated labour intermediation can lead to human rights violations by intermediaries, such as human trafficking and compulsory labour. Moreover, interviewed migrants were found to work long hours with minimum to no days of rest, and work arrangements were found to often be informal, not involving documented contracts. This, according to the report, exacerbates migrants’ work vulnerability and increases the risk of abuses at the workplace going unnoticed and unreported.

The Committee observes, from the report of the Secretary-General of 8 August 2024 on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) (S/2024/598), that Libya remains a country of destination and transit for migrants and refugees. Referring to statistics from the International Organization for Migration, the report reveals that the number of migrants in Libya stood at 725,304 as at May 2024.

The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to protect migrant workers from abusive practices and conditions that could amount to forced labour, including on awareness-raising activities to inform them on their labour rights, mechanisms to assert their rights and the monitoring of placement agencies and intermediaries. Please also provide information on any reported complaints or cases brought against employers or intermediaries by migrant workers for the violation of their labour rights, as well as on any reported cases concerning situations that could amount to forced labour.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2025.]