I hope, one day, I will have the right to speak

Situated at the intersection of digital migration studies, social movement studies and critical citizenship studies, this article explores how people on the move (migrants, refugees) in Libya use digital media to raise rights violations and to challenge European Union (EU) policies and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) practices. To examine how digital media provide a ‘space of appearance’ for people on the move in Libya, the study presents a qualitative thematic analysis of 49 posts and 986 comments published on the official Facebook page of UNHCR Libya between January 2018 and January 2019. Major themes include criticisms of UNHCR services and EU policies as well as the raising of human rights issues surrounding detention and evacuation. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how digital media enable people on the move to raise rights claims, contest official narratives and become active narrators of their individual struggles with the system of control and exclusion that is so deeply embedded in the discourse of securitized humanitarian care at Europe’s border. At the same time, it highlights how issues of digital access and communicative capacity influence visibility and self-expression in the digital space of appearances.