Refugees, migrants face horrors while crossing African continent

Migrants cross the Sahara Desert into Libya on the back of a pickup truck outside Agadez, Niger, May 9, 2016. [Reuters]

Thousands of refugees and migrants who risk their lives on dangerous land routes across the African continent are subject to violence, abuse and exploitation, according to a report released Friday by the U.N. Refugee Agency, International Organization for Migration and the Mixed Migration Center research group.

The report is largely based on interviews of 32,000 refugees and migrants conducted between 2020 and 2023. The report says the number of people attempting perilous land crossings has increased, as have the protection threats they face since the first edition of the report was issued in 2020.