News - Middle East: The United Nations has warned that the European Union is providing support to organizations perpetrating rights abuse, including systematic torture and sexual slavery, against refugees and migrants in Libya.

The United Nations raised the alarm on Monday in an investigation on the deteriorating human rights situation in Libya, saying the 27-member bloc was facilitating the commission of abuses against migrants in the conflict-torn North African country.

In its final report, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya concluded that there were "grounds to believe a wide array of war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by state security forces and armed militia groups."

"Migrants, in particular, have been targeted and there is overwhelming evidence that they have been systematically tortured" in detention centers, it said.

The mission's chairman Mohamed Auajjar said investigators found crimes against humanity had been committed against migrants in detention centers under the control of Libya's Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCMI) and the country's coast guard.

“These entities receive technical, logistic and monetary support from the European Union and its member states" for the interception and return of migrants, Auajjar said.

"We're not saying that the EU and its member states have committed these crimes," investigator Chaloka Beyani told reporters, adding though that "the support given has aided and abetted the commission of the crimes."

Beyani added it was "clear that the DCIM has responsibility for multitudes of crimes against humanity in the detention centers that they run. The support given to them by the EU has facilitated this."