Libya’s hashish crackdown reveals transnational drug trade’s roots in colonial legacies and climate-driven migration
Original framing: “Libya seizes nearly $1 million of hashish in east - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The voices of migrant workers from Niger, Chad, and Sudan—who make up the majority of laborers in Libya’s hashish fields—are entirely absent, despite reports of forced labor and child trafficking in the industry. Women, who often process hashish in informal settings, face double criminalization as both migrants and drug couriers, yet their testimonies are never cited. Even Libyan activists, like those in the *15 February Revolution* movement, who have criticized the state’s complicity in smuggling, are excluded from the narrative, reinforcing the erasure of domestic dissent in favor of a state-centric security frame.
Libya’s hashish seizures are not an isolated crime story but a symptom of a fractured system where colonial legacies, climate collapse, and EU border policies intersect.
The criminalization of cannabis in North Africa mirrors the global War on Drugs’ racialized enforcement, yet the absence of Indigenous voices—from Tuareg farmers to Sahelian migrants—obscures how these policies deepen inequality. Historical parallels, such as Gaddafi’s state hashish industry or France’s bombing of Moroccan cannabis fields, reveal a cyclical pattern where Western powers exploit African resources while criminalizing local practices. The solution lies in decoupling drug enforcement from migration control, investing in climate-resilient economies, and centering the cultural and economic sovereignty of affected communities. Without this systemic shift, Libya’s hashish trade will persist as both a profit center for armed groups and a scapegoat for Europe’s failure to address its own complicity in the crisis.