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Abdulrazag Shneeti, a spokesman for the governments Department for Combating Illegal Migration, did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

The Zawiyah facility known as the al-Nasr detention center was set up by the al-Nasr Brigade, a militia involved in oil and human smuggling that has links to the coast guard, U.N. investigators said in a report released in June. Christine Petre, an IOM spokeswoman, said the facility is now being run by the Western-backed government, but migrants and coast guard members said the militia and its tribesmen are still in charge.

Migrants sleep and eat on the dirty floors. Lunch is a six-inch loaf of bread. Dinner is a plate of macaroni.

On a recent day, the mattresses had been taken away from a group in a cell as punishment for fighting, said Fathi al-Far, the centers director. Last year, he said, four migrants were killed and a guard was injured in clashes.

An inmate in poor health is tended to by a friend after passing out at the al-Nasr detention center on May 24.

Two migrants died of treatable problems in the past two years, Far said. He has been awaiting a water purifier for months. Nearby, an Algerian migrant lay on the floor against a wall, clutching his stomach and writhing in pain. But there was no doctor to help him.

Guards are quick to give beatings, several migrants said.

It happens, Far said.

In their report, U.N. investigators described Far as a former army colonel and said that the center is used to sell migrants to other smugglers.

Far acknowledged that smugglers come to the center to take migrants but said he is unable to stop them. Guards or militia members call the migrants families to extort cash if they pay, the migrant is released and put back on a boat to Europe.

The guards can do anything, Far said. They have the keys to the cells.

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In Libya, migrants are bought and sold in a brutal ...