The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, described conditions in Libyan migrant detention centres as "terrible". He urged to establish reception centres instead.
"UNHCR and IOM must have access", Grandi said on Monday.His comments came as he arrived together with the director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), William Swing, for a work lunch with European foreign ministers at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
"We must move beyond the logic of detention centres and establish reception centres where UNHCR and IOM can have access and provide for people who need aid and find solutions," Grandi said.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reaffirmed the EU's full support. Swing said there are "thirty detention centres" in Libya, and that currently IOM has "access to two and we are trying to turn them into open centres".