Trump administration plans to send migrants to Libya where they could face forced labor and slavery
The Trump administration is planning to transport a group of immigrants to Libya on a U.S. military plane, according to U.S. officials, another sharp escalation in a deportation program that has sparked widespread legal challenges and intense political debate.
The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately clear, but a flight to Libya carrying the deportees could leave as soon as Wednesday, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
The decision to send deportees to Libya was striking. The country is racked with conflict, and human rights groups have called conditions in its network of migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable.”
The Libya operation falls in line with the Trump administration’s effort to not only deter migrants from trying to enter the country illegally but also to send a strong message to those in the country illegally that they can be deported to countries where they could face brutal conditions. Reuters earlier reported the possibility of a U.S. deportation flight to Libya.
The planning for the flight to Libya has been tightly held, and could still be derailed by logistical, legal or diplomatic obstacles.
The White House declined to comment. The State Department and Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The potential use of Libya as a destination comes after the administration set off an earlier furor by deporting a group of Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they are being held in a maximum-security prison designed for terrorists.
President Trump and his aides labeled those men violent gang members and cited a rarely used wartime law in their expulsions, a move that has been challenged in the courts.
The State Department warns against traveling to Libya “due to crime, terrorism, unexploded land mines, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict.” The country remains divided after years of civil war following the 2011 overthrow of its longtime dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. A United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli rules western Libya, and another in Benghazi, led by the warlord Khalifa Haftar, controls the east.
The United States has formal relations only with the Tripoli government. But Mr. Haftar’s son, Saddam, was in Washington last week, and met with several Trump administration officials. Mr. Trump had friendly dealings in his first term with Mr. Haftar, who controls most of Libya’s lucrative oil fields.
A major transit point for Europe-bound migrants, Libya operates numerous detention facilities for refugees and migrants. Amnesty International branded those sites “horrific” and “a hellscape” in a 2021 report, which found evidence of “sexual violence, against men, women and children.” The Global Detention Project says detained migrants in Libya endure “physical mistreatment and torture,” forced labor and even slavery. [Continue reading…]
A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing migrants from being sent to Libya or any other third country after immigration attorneys filed an emergency motion Wednesday.
The United States reportedly plans to send a group of undocumented immigrants to Libya as early as this week.
A U.S. military aircraft is expected to transport the migrants who are from the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos, among other countries, the motion said.
The plaintiffs are being set for removal “without any reasonable fear screening, let alone a fifteen-day window to file a motion to reopen with the immigration court to contest any negative reasonable fear determination,” according to the motion, which was filed in U.S District Court in Massachusetts.
In one case, the attorneys said in the motion, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at a South Texas detention facility gathered several detainees in a room. The detainees were told that they needed to sign a document agreeing to be deported to Libya, the document said. When they refused, they were put in separate rooms, “cuffed in,” and forced to sign the document, the motion says.
Libya’s provisional Government of National Unity said on social media that it is not coordinating deportations with the United States and that it rejects using the country as a destination for deported immigrants without its knowledge or consent.
“The Government categorically denies the existence of any agreement or coordination with it regarding the reception of any migrants deported from the United States,” it said.
It also suggested that “some parallel parties that are not subject to legitimacy” could be involved with the developments.
Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, said in a statement that it also opposed the country‘s taking in deported migrants because it would violate “the sovereignty of the homeland.” [Continue reading…]