Libya to deport 2 million

2008-01-19 14:13

Tripoli, Libya - Libya asserted its right to carry out a massive wave of expulsions of illegal immigrants on Friday in the face of criticism that such actions violated international law.

London-based rights group Amnesty International on Friday criticised a Libyan decision to expel all its illegal immigrants, calling it arbitrary and a violation of international human rights law - eliciting an angry response from Tripoli.

"Libyan tolerance was abused by those immigrants that have been using Libya as a passage to Europe and put Libya in a critical situation in front of the international community," Abdel-Moneim al-Lamoushi, a government spokesperson, told The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, the state news agency Jana said authorities were working on the "immediate deportation of all the illegal foreign residents," quoting a member of the national assembly.

"No resident without a legal visa will be excluded," the report added.

Rushed decision

Amnesty International called on Libya "not to implement what appears to be a rushed decision as it would violate the rights of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children," it said in a statement.

The organisation added that according to international human rights law, immigrants should not be deported back to a country if there is serious risk of human rights violations.

The Libyan spokesperson, however, maintained that the expulsions are legal according to national law which requires entry and exit visas for foreigners and called the decision "final and not to be reconsidered."

Labour officials in Libya put the number of foreigners in Libya as 2 million, of whom only 60 000 of them have work permits and legal visas. Most are Africans who sneak through the deserts into Libya from Sudan, Chad and Niger.

Al-Lamoushi added that according to security reports, most of these Africans are involved in gangs "attacking the citizens inside their homes, forging money, producing liquor... and looking to immigrate to the Europe."

"Based on these realities, we had to take these measures, though we will deal with them in a civilized way, dealing with them through their embassies and ambassadors," he said.

Libya has regularly deported refugees and asylum-seekers in recent years and routinely expels migrants, said Amnesty.

- AP