A number of Libyan political parties have firmly rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to deport migrants with criminal records from the United States to Libya, calling it “a blatant violation of Libya’s sovereignty.”
In a joint statement issued Saturday, the parties urged the Libyan authorities to officially declare their rejection of the proposed plan. The statement stressed that “Libya is not a testing ground for foreign policies, nor a dumping ground for the problems of other nations seeking solutions to their crises.”
The parties rejected any attempt to exploit Libya’s fragile security and economic conditions, noting that the country “has yet to recover from years of war and political instability.”
They further argued that describing Libya as a “safe third country” is a “glaring contradiction in both stance and rhetoric,” pointing out that the United States continues to issue annual travel warnings to its citizens against visiting Libya due to security risks.
The parties reaffirmed that “Libya is a fully sovereign state, and its sovereign security and humanitarian decisions cannot be imposed by foreign powers.”
They warned that any attempt by any party to pass such agreements with the United States or others “is a flagrant assault on our dignity, sovereignty, and national security.”
The statement acknowledged the right of states to manage their own migration policies, but added, “This must not turn into a violation of people’s dignity or an exploitation of the most vulnerable regions in the world.”
The parties called on the U.S. administration to immediately halt “any negotiations, agreements, or memorandums of understanding that infringe upon Libya’s sovereignty,” particularly in the absence of a unified government capable of representing the collective will of all Libyans.
The statement also urged the permanent members of the UN Security Council to assume their responsibilities in supporting Libya’s stability, instead of turning the country into a testing ground for foreign policy experiments incompatible with respect for state sovereignty and human rights principles.
The parties called on the House of Representatives, the High Council of State, the Presidential Council, and both governments to issue a clear and unequivocal official stance rejecting the deportation of migrants to Libya, warning that “silence is considered implicit approval, and therefore condemned by the Libyan people.”
