EU 'turning blind eye' to abuses, says UN

The United Nations on Friday accused the European Union of "turning a blind eye" to the brutality faced by migrants held in Libya.

"Some migrants die of thirst, hunger or easily-cured illnesses, some are tortured or beaten to death while working as slave labour, others are just casually murdered," UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.

Zeid detailed these and other abuses -- including the rape of women "in some cases, every night" -- that hundreds of thousands of migrants are suffering at the hands of authorities in Libyan detention centres in the country.

He said their situation had been "appalling" during dictator Muammar Gaddafi's rule but had turned "diabolical" since his ouster.

Italy and EU have been financing, training and providing aid to Libya's coastguard to stop smugglers from taking migrants and refugees in flimsy boats across the Mediterranean to Europe.  But Zeid said such efforts -- including the plan by European and African leaders last month to prevent people from crossing the Mediterranean -- are a "failure" because they do not deal with the "human calamity".