Local affairs editor (LANA) comments on what was published by the UN mission regarding illegal immigrants in Libya.

Tripoli, June 12, 2023 (LANA) - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya, in a post on its Facebook page, today, Monday, expressed its concern about what it called the "mass arbitrary detention of migrants and asylum seekers that affected all parts of the country." Noting that "the Libyan authorities have arrested thousands of men, women and children from the streets and from their homes, or following raids on what are alleged to be camps and warehouses for traffickers."

Commenting on what was published by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya today, the editor of local affairs at the Libyan News Agency wrote: We believe that the United Nations Support Mission in Libya has once again fallen into a new old fallacy regarding the thorny file of the phenomenon of migrants and asylum seekers and used heavy phrases that may affect Libyan sovereignty.

The editor clarified again that the mission ignored the truth when it ignored that Libya receives on its soil, according to semi-official statistics, and for decades, between (1.2) and (1.5) million immigrant citizens of many African and even Asian nationalities working in Libya safely in the private sector, including the construction sector, Agriculture industry, technical workshops, etc. They live among its people and transfer their money regularly to their families in their countries of origin. They organize football tournaments and celebrate with the Libyan people in the squares and streets of all Libyan cities, including the capital, Tripoli, on religious and national holidays in their distinctive African traditional costumes.

The editor pointed out that a number of other immigrants infiltrated into Libya and joined the ranks of criminal gangs to smuggle and distribute drugs, manufacture alcohol locally, and set up places for prostitution. A serious threat to Libyan national security and a drain on Libyan resources.

The editor noted that the mission’s announcement that many of these migrants, including pregnant women and children, were detained in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions and that thousands of others, including migrants who entered Libya legally, were collectively expelled without scrutiny or following due legal procedures, is easy talk but lacks accuracy and most importantly, from this, solutions are lacking against the backdrop of bilateral and international agreements to deal with this flood of human flow through the desert paths to jump to the other bank of the Mediterranean.

Regarding the mission’s indication that the campaign of arbitrary arrests and deportations coincided with an alarming increase in hate speech and racist discourse against foreigners on the Internet and in the media, the local affairs editor considered that Libya is responsible for its national media and not responsible for social media, noting that heads of state and government have made statements on Racism against Africans and even openly against African countries in Europe and America without the United Nations moving a finger.

In the same context, the editor stressed that addressing this thorny and worsening phenomenon of illegal immigrants begins with the source countries and ends with the destination countries, stressing that Libya, as a transit and polarization country, pays the highest bill for this global phenomenon at the expense of its security and stability despite its fragile security and economic situation due to the turning a blind eye of the source countries. These massive human flows are not prevented, and destination countries in Europe erect security barriers at sea and on their borders to prevent the arrival of migrants.

The local affairs editor concluded, at the end of his comment, that the UN mission called on the Libyan authorities to stop these measures and treat migrants with dignity and humanity in line with its international obligations, and indicated that the Libyan authorities must grant United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organizations unimpeded access to the detainees who are being detained. They need urgent protection, it remains ruminative, hostile talk and dead media material unless the United Nations, through the UN mission, develops an integrated plan to address this humanitarian phenomenon, in which it explicitly calls on the source and destination countries to shoulder their moral, political and social responsibilities, fully cooperate with the Libyan authorities, and provide all means for that.

(LANA)