Tripoli— Libyan authorities in both east and west Libya have “categorically” rejected the resettlement of any migrants of any nationality in the country, stressing that there have been no agreements or understandings with any party regarding this issue.
The vehement rejection came in response to news reports on Wednesday saying the United States is to be deporting criminal migrants to Libya. The issue has already created controversy and is further deepening the political crisis in the country.
It is expected to negatively affect efforts by the United Nations mission in Libya, UNSMIL, to reactivate the political process and pave the way to holding long-awaited general presidential and parliamentary elections.
Citing three US officials in an exclusive on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the US President Donald Trump’s administration “may deport migrants to Libya for the first time this week” as part of Trump’s crackdown on migrants.
“Two of the officials said the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change,” Reuters said.
The Foreign Ministry in eastern Libya which is appointed by the Parliament said in a statement it “categorically rejects the existence of any agreements or understandings with regard to the settlement of migrants from any nationality including African, European or American.”
“The government is committed to its international obligations, human rights, and the international humanitarian law with regard to work and movement in accordance with national laws,” adding “Any talk about settling migrants or the existence of agreements in this respect are to be baseless.”
On its part, the Government of National Unity (GNU) has also strongly denied any contacts with the United States regarding accepting any migrant deportees in an official statement published on the GNU’s Facebook platform.
It said, the GNU “has followed media reports regarding the US authorities’ intention to deport a number of migrants to Libya and it confirms the following: The Government categorically denies any agreement or coordination with the US regarding the reception of any migrants deported from the United States.”
“The Government notes that some parallel entities that are not subject to legitimacy may be party to understandings that do not represent the Libyan state which not bind it legally or politically,” it added.
The GNU stressed, “it rejects the use of Libyan territory as a destination for the deportation of migrants without its knowledge or consent, and it upholds its right to protect national sovereignty.”
The Pentagon referred queries to the White House. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A State Department spokesperson said: “We do not discuss the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments.”
However, despite the rejections and denials by the two governments in Tripoli and Benghazi, the controversy and distrust is deepening between the authorities and the public. Among these controversies is the claim that a US C-130 had already landed in the city of Misrata which is alleged to be carrying the criminal migrant deportees from the US.
In response to these allegations, the GNU issue a statement saying, “the aircraft in question is a C-130, owned by the Italian government. It arrived as part of an official visit by an Italian military delegation to the Air Defense College, accompanied by officials from the Libyan Ministry of Defense, as part of a bilateral military cooperation program.”
The flight was unrelated to any issue related to immigration or deportation, and that it was part of a long-standing schedule of periodic visits in coordination with the Ministry of Defense, it stressed.
Despite this denial by the GNU, social media postings are full of accusations and counter accusations as well as fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories, the focus of which is the rejection of receiving any deportees from the US or elsewhere, especially as the country is already having more than four million illegal migrants according to the authorities.
According to Reuters, President Trump, who made immigration a major issue during his election campaign, has launched aggressive enforcement action since taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally.
As of Monday, the Trump administration has deported 152,000 people, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Reuters said.
If indeed the deported migrants had arrived in Libya, this would contradict US’s annual human rights report released last year, in which the State Department criticized Libya’s “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions” and “arbitrary arrest or detention,” Reuters maintained.
In its travel advisory, the State Department advises US citizens against visiting Libya due to “crime, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict.”