US plan to deport migrants to Libya 'will put them in extreme danger'

Influx of migrants would also destabilise fragile nation, report says

Migrants at a detention centre in Libya. Reuters

Plans to deport migrants from the US to Libya would put them in extreme danger and destabilise the already fragile North African nation, a report has warned.

The Trump administration has been in talks to deport asylum seekers to Libya, as well as migrants living in the US who hold criminal records, though a judge has temporarily halted any removals. But a report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) has raised fears that any migrants sent to Libya face being put in violent detention centres where their lives would be at risk.

The study’s author Matt Herbert, head of research for North Africa and the Sahel, said Libya’s competing governments – the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) and the Government of National Stability (GNS) – both run migration detention facilities. These were set up to hold migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa but also from the Middle East, who arrive in the country to pay people smugglers to take them across the Mediterranean, as part of an agreement with the EU nations to reduce migration.

Conditions in the “migrant detention facilities are extremely poor, with limited food and water and frequent overcrowding”, says Mr Herbert. “The centres are also sites of chronic and grave human rights abuses, which have been widely recorded over the years. Physical abuse, beatings, verbal humiliation and psychological torture are commonplace, and are often used during interrogations or as punishment.”

Demonstrators gather for an anti-government protest in Tripoli. AFP

Migrants also face extortion and kidnapping by “predatory” criminal gangs, which involves “torture until a ransom is paid”. In many detention centres “guards systematically demand ransoms from detainees, under threat of torture or death, mirroring the actions of criminal extortion gangs operating elsewhere.

“In some cases, there is collusion with criminal gangs or armed groups that engage in similar activities outside the facility, with detainees being transferred off-site for the purpose of extortion.” Mr Herbert warns that “migrants deported from the US risk becoming entangled in this” should the deportations eventually go ahead.

His report also highlights the impact any deportations would have on the political situation in Libya, where there is “significant anti-migrant rhetoric, both online and from key political actors”. Migration has become a “lightning rod” for criticism of the Tripoli-based GNU government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and there was “significant tension” when it was alleged Libya would be accepting large numbers of Palestinian refugees.

“If US deportations to Libya were to route to GNU-controlled areas, they would feed into the ongoing highly politicised debate surrounding migration in the region,” says Mr Herbert. “This would pose a particular risk to Prime Minister Dbeibah, giving his opponents a potent line of rhetorical attack and poisoning public opinion against him.”

Migrants detained by Libyan authorities on a boat off the country's coast. AFP

The GNU’s authority is challenged by powerful militias, so “any perceived foreign pressure to host migrants could inflame public anger, put additional strain on Prime Minister Dbeibah and his already fragile governance structures”. When it comes to the GNS, the report states that the control of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar is more "robust", which would make deportations to there more manageable.

But Mr Herbert warns “they could embolden Haftar, a strongman whose forces have been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses, possibly incentivising him to pursue deeper military ambitions or political repression”.

Tim Eaton, senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, told The National he was sceptical of Libyan denials about a deal to take migrants.

“The backdrop is that a number of prominent Libyans have been travelling through Washington in the last couple of months,” he said.

These have included Saddam Haftar, the son of Khalifa Haftar, and representatives of the GNU, explained Mr Eaton.

“Of course, the goal of those Libyans has been to seek and obtain support from the new US administration for their own ambitions. I think what we've got here is a kind of situation whereby the messaging coming out of the White House is that they're looking for deals to be struck.

“Certainly in this case, that seems to be, the genesis of this discussion. Then, of course, there's also competition between the rival Libyans over who gets to do the deal.”

He concludes that: “In short, deporting migrants to Libya – regardless of which faction accepts them – would not only endanger the people involved but also feed the systems of impunity and conflict that have long plagued the country.”

After American officials had said the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as mid-May but stressed that plans could change, US District Judge Brian Murphy issued an order restricting their removal. When the proposals became public, both Libyan governments publicly denied reports that the US wants to send migrants to the country.

Immigration rights advocates said in court filings that individuals potentially subject to deportation to Libya also included Filipino, Laotian and Vietnamese migrants. The relatives of one Mexican national have said he had been instructed to sign a document allowing for his deportation to Libya.