The journey of surviving to survive

Stateless persons of Malian origin collect their belongings from the rubble in the Tinkineien neighborhood of Awbari City. The area was shattered by heavy shelling prior to the ceasefire instigated just days before. Awbari, Libya.

A bullet-riddled, civilian-style truck covered in ISIL logos, which has been discarded on the road to Abugrein, in the west of Libya. Abugrein, Libya.

Illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa look through the window of a cell in the Garabuli Detention Centre, pleading for water, cigarettes, food and their release. Garabuli, Libya

Sub-Saharan illegal migrants and refugees are pictured begging for their release in one Surman detention centre. The centre's director (not pictured) stands in front of the cell, threatening to beat them with a stick if they do not calm down. The detainees freeze in panic. Surman, Libya.

Sub-Saharan illegal migrants and refugees reach through the window of a cell in the Garabuli Detention Centre, pleading for water, cigarettes, food and their release. Garabuli, Libya.

A vigilante group carries out surveillance operations on the Zawara shore, looking for the corpses of illegal migrants and refugees washed up by the tide during the night. Two hundred and twenty six bodies of illegal migrants, asylum seekers and refugees were washed up on the Zuwara and Sabratah shores the week after their boats sank in the Mediterranean. Twenty six pregnant women and one toddler were among the dead. Zawara, Libya, June 2016.

Surveillance operations carried out by NATO aircraft and the Libyan coastguard in the Mediterranean Sea looking for the boats of migrants. Libyan Sea.

Sub-Saharan illegal migrants and refugees on the Tajoura shore after being arrested in the Mediterranean Sea by the Libyan coastguard. Tajoura, Libya.

An illegal female migrant waits with a group of women to be transferred to another detention centre, after being sold by the militia group running the Surman detention camp in the west of Libya. Surman, Libya.

A group of sub-Saharan illegal migrants and refugees are crowded into one section of the Zawiyah Detention Centre, a warehouse-like facility holding as many as 2,000 detainees at any one time, making it the largest of its type on Libyan soil. The centre serves as a distribution facility in the human trafficking supply chain, and from here inmates are resold to other militias on the west coast of Libya. Zawiyah, Libya

Illegal female migrants queue in the prison yard as they are loaded onto buses to be transferred to another detention centre, after being sold by the militia group running the Surman detention camp in the west of Libya. Surman, Libya.

In 2009, the Fondation Carmignac launched the Carmignac Photojournalism Award with the aim to support, each year, a photojournalist in undertaking a photographic and investigative assignment to explore an area of the world at the centre of geostrategic conflicts. The award provides the laureate selected by an international jury with €50,000 to fund time in the field, as well as a fully-financed monograph and a touring exhibition of the project.

All photos are copyright of Narciso Contreras for the Fondation Carmignac