Displaced in their own country

During the 2011 civil war, Moammar Gadhafi's forces used Tawargha as a base for a brutal two-month siege of neighboring Misrata. When the siege ended, rebels sought revenge on the people of Tawargha, whom they saw as responsible for the suffering in Misrata. Tawargha became a ghost town, its people are now scattered across the country.

Refugees in this camp near Tripoli's airport live in plastic and corrugated iron cabins left over from construction sites. There had once been plans for luxury apartment blocks here, surrounded by parks, pools and shopping malls.

On November 16, four armed men broke into the al-Fallah camp south of Tripoli, shooting Abu Muntalib, 28, and wounding three others. Eyewitnesses said that the day before, a group of three men had approached them asking whether the refugees were from Tawargha.

"Not only do they call us Gadhafists, they hate us for the color of our skin," this woman shouts. Her brother had been kidnapped by Misrata militiamen a few hours before.

This makeshift school in Janzour camp in Tripoli has around 400 students. Libya's government has offered to build 500 homes for the refugees in Jufra, an inhospitable region in the Libyan desert. Tawargha's local council has firmly rejected the idea.

Mabrouk Suessi (left) is the spokesman of the camp close to Tripoli's airport. He stands next to Jalia Salem, who hasn't heard from her son, Wanis Mustaf, since he was captured by militias last November. Human Rights Watch has consistently described the situation as "an ongoing crime against humanity that remains unaddressed."

Government official Wafaa Elnaas, head of the Internal Displaced Office in Libya, rejects the possibility of Tawarghans ever returning home. "The Tawarghans are well aware that the hatred they suffer today is rooted in what they did in Misrata, and wounds still need time to heal. It's too soon."