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The Trump administration is planning to deport a group of migrants to Libya, according to reports, despite the state department’s previous condemnation of the “life-threatening” prison conditions in the country.
Libya’s provisional government has denied the reports.
Reuters cited three unnamed US officials as saying the deportations could happen this week. Two of the officials said the individuals, whose nationalities are not known, could fly to the north African country as soon as Wednesday, but they added the plans could still change. The New York Times also cited a US official confirming the deportation plans.
It was not clear what Libya would be getting in return for taking any deportees.
Libya is a major transit point for Europe-bound asylum seekers. For years, human rights organisations have documented how migrants trapped in the country are at the mercy of militias and smugglers. Tens of thousands of people from sub-Saharan Africa are kept indefinitely in overcrowded refugee detention centres where they are subjected to abuses and torture.
In its annual human rights report released last year, the US state department criticised Libya’s “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions” and “arbitrary arrest or detention”, citing how migrants , including children, had “no access to immigration courts or due process”.
The White House, state department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The news has prompted condemnation from aid agencies and NGOs that operate in the central mediterranean, which have long warned about the harsh conditions faced by asylum seekers in Libya. They have also accused European governments of being complicit in such treatment by working with Libya to intercept migrants.
‘‘For 10 years now since our foundation, as a search and rescue organisation, we have continuously highlighted that Libya is not a safe place for migrants and refugees,” said Mirka Schäfer, a political expert for the German search-and-rescue organisation SOS Humanity. “Evidence from survivors onboard our vessel Humanity 1, includes refugees with traces of torture on their bodies, gunshot wounds, pain caused by beatings, physical and psychological wounds while in transit, in detention camps in Libya, or fleeing Libya across the Mediterranean.”
One person aboard the Humanity 1 ship said criminal groups operating in Libya “sell people like they would sell bread”.
Luca Casarini, the Italian founder of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, said the reported move by Trump was “an endorsement of the horror that has characterised his administration’s policies since the very beginning”.
‘‘Libya is one of the most hellish places on Earth, where mafias and smugglers operate with the complicity of the European Union. But Trump goes a step further. The American president claims ownership of this horror by deporting people to a hell that is Libya, flaunting his power. It is a move that drags our civilisation toward the abyss.’’
Libya’s government of national unity said on Wednesday it rejected the use of its territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent. The government added there was no coordination with the US regarding the reception of migrants.
Trump, who made immigration a major issue during his election campaign, has launched aggressive enforcement action since taking office, increasing troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the US.
As of Monday, the Trump administration has deported 152,000 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump’s administration has tried to encourage migrants to leave voluntarily by threatening steep fines, trying to strip away legal status, and sending migrants to notorious prisons in Guantánamo Bay and El Salvador.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, last week said the US was not satisfied with sending migrants only to El Salvador, and hinted that Washington was looking to expand the number of countries to which it could deport people.
“We are working with other countries to say: We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings; will you do this as a favour to us?” Rubio said at a cabinet meeting at the White House last Wednesday. “And the further away from America, the better.”
A fourth US official said the administration had for several weeks been looking at a number of countries where it might be able to send migrants, including Libya.
On 19 April the supreme court temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans it accused of being gang members.
Trump’s administration, which has invoked a rarely used wartime law, has urged the justices to lift or narrow their order.
Reuters contributed to this report.
