Migrants detained in western Libya said Monday they were caught in the crossfire between rival militias.
They are among thousands of other detained migrants who have suffered abuses at the hands of traffickers and are now caught up in the armed conflict.
The Associated Press (AP) documented abuses at another detention facility with hundreds of migrants living in filthy conditions.
Guards fled the Gharyan detention center, which houses nearly 30 migrants, including 10 suffering from tuberculosis, two migrants told AP.
Militiamen stormed the center on Wednesday, holding one migrant at gunpoint and accusing him of supporting Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army.
The same militia returned in the following days to try to recruit them as fighters, according to the migrants' statements.
"We told them we are sick and very weak. We can't carry guns," one migrant said. They appealed for help, saying their detention center is running out of food and water.
The group of 30 ended up in Gharyan after years on tough journeys at the mercy of traffickers who torture migrants and hold them for ransom money from families back home, AP reported.
Doctors Without Borders' international chief recently described Libyan detention centers as a "nightmare."
