The United Nations is demanding an urgent investigation after several mass graves were discovered at detention sites in Libya. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said June 4: "Our worst held fears are being confirmed: dozens of bodies have been discovered at these sites, along with the discovery of suspected instruments of torture and abuse, and potential evidence of extrajudicial killings."

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation June 4 implementing a nearly full travel ban on nationals from a dozen countries, severely restricting potential entry into the United States. The proclamation is based on an executive order issued on Trump's first day in office that laid the foundation for the administration to enact extensive immigration controls. Trump claimed the action serves national security interests:

Amid the hype about how Trump "snubbed" Netanyahu on his Middle East trip come reports that his White House is pushing a plan to relocate some 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya—which is in the midst of a massive human rights crisis. Even while on the ground in Qatar, Trump plugged his relocation scheme for the Gazans, who now face complete ethnic cleansing from the devastated Strip. In Episode 279 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg debunks the notion of a Trump tilt away from Israel, and asks why some "progressives" are joining with paleocons to view massive arms deals with the repressive and arch-reactionary monarchies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar as a good thing. 

Since alarming reports broke that Trump is preparing deportation flights to Libya, the plan has happily been put on hold by the courts—as well as denied by both of Libya's two rival governments. But Libya, like El Salvador, was clearly chosen because of its horrific human rights record, with a UN investigation characterizing its treatment of detained migrants as crimes against humanity. A migrant detention center was even bombed in the inter-factional fighting in Libya six years ago, killing scores of inmates. And news of US plans to send detainees there comes just as a new round of fighting has broken out in Tripoli—involving a militia headed by the warlord "Gheniwa," who has himself been implicated in atrocities against migrants. Bill Weinberg raises the alarm in Episode 278 of the CounterVortex podcast.

More than 600 asylum seekers and migrants have gone missing after being intercepted by the Tunisian Coastguard in the Mediterranean Sea. The group was picked up while trying to make it to Europe on the night of March 16, along with 18 dead bodies, and hasn't been heard from since. Monitoring groups suspect they were dumped in Tunisia's desert border regions with Libya and Algeria—a common practice. The EU has supported Tunisia in recent years to crack down on migration, even as reports of abuse have multiplied.

Libya's Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (one of two rival governments) has accused aid groups of planning to settle African migrants in the country, to "change the demographic composition of the country" and threaten "the balance of Libyan society." The government has  reportedly ordered them to stop work. There are more than 824,000 refugees and migrants in Libya, and more than 240,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived in the country since the civil war broke out in Sudan two years ago.

Some of the world's poorest countries, including nations grappling with protracted humanitarian crises, are among those most affected by US President Donald Trump's new trade tariffs regime, which has compounded pre-existing economic strains and debt woes. Asian markets will be particularly hard hit, including imports to the US from Myanmar to be charged at 45%, and Bangladesh at 37%. Big charges were also imposed on fragile economies in the Middle East and North Africa, with Syria at 41%, Libya at 31%, and Iraq at 39%. But among the worst effects will likely be felt in Africa, where Trump's decision has created an "inexplicably cruel situation," according to the Center for Global Development (CGD). "It is hard to fathom that the administration set out to destabilize poor African countries and unclear what they hope to gain," wrote CGD researchers. The tariffs have effectively tanked the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allowed duty-free imports to the US for 32 countries and was credited with helping economic growth. Lesotho and Madagascar could be among the Trump tariffs' biggest losers, CGD predicted. Amid existential financial worries in the international aid sector—triggered by Trump's closure of USAID—economists have also raised the possibility of a global trade war, with far-reaching ramifications for inflation and the cost of living worldwide.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a video released on social media Jan. 28 she has been placed under investigation by the Prosecutor's Office over her government's surprise release of a Libyan national who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Italian police arrested Osama Najim, the head of the Tripoli government's Judicial Police, in the city of Turin nine days earlier. Najim, popularly known as "Almasri," serves as director of a network of detention centers where systematic abuse and human rights violations have been repeatedly documented in a reports by the UN Human Rights Council. Mediterranea Saving Humans NGO stated that the arrest "came after years of complaints and testimonies from victims, which were sent to the International Criminal Court." Yet Najim was released after just one day, and arrived at Tripoli International Airport on Jan. 21. Queried about the release, Italian authorities cited "procedural irregularities" in his arrest. However, media commentators have widely pointed to Rome's arrangements with Tripoli to block migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy's shores.