The United States hopes to send deported people to Libya, the location of large graves and cruel detention centers for immigrants
The Trump administration’s massive deportation program now includes Libya, which will represent an extraordinary development given the controversial treatment of immigrants in North African countries and its history in the United States
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy issued an order on Wednesday that restricted the order before the previous day to hand over immigrants to Libya after Reuters cited three officials, where he said the Trump administration could deport immigrants for the first time.
Murphy noted that previous court orders prohibited officials from quickly deporting immigrants to countries outside their own country without first weighing whether they risk persecution or torture.
Reuters cannot determine how many immigrants will be sent to Libya or the government is paying attention to the nationality of those deported. They claimed the news agency spoke with a relative of a Mexican national who was directed to sign a document allowing him to expel him from African countries. Immigration rights advocates said in court documents that individuals who are likely to be deported from Libya also include Filipino, Laos and Vietnamese immigrants.
The Pentagon forwarded the inquiry to the White House. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
A State Council spokesman said: “We do not discuss the details of diplomatic communication with other governments.”
“If there is any doubt – the court did not see it – as the news agency reported, the alleged resignation will be apparently violated the court's orders, as the plaintiff attempted to confirm the class members' accounts and public information.”
A group of immigrant lawyers also asked Murphy to block immigrants from any country, including Saudi Arabia, without ensuring that his due process rights are met.
Trafficking, charges torture
The administration recently argued that Murphy's previous orders only apply to the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense, and U.S. officials told Reuters that it would be involved in flying immigrants to Libya.
Murphy said Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security could not “escape” his orders by transferring the responsibility to other agencies.
Libya's National Unity Government said on Wednesday it rejected its territory as a destination for deportation of immigrants without its knowledge or consent. It also said there was no coordination with the transfer of immigration in the United States.
The Libyan National Army, which controls Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, also rejected the idea, saying in a statement that immigrants expelled from the United States “violate their hometown sovereignty.”
Libya has been a hot spot for global migration flows over the past decade, with Africans from several countries often departing in crumbling ships and other ships, bringing dangerous transits to Europe. Between April 2023 and April 2024, the United Nations has recorded more than half of those departing from Libya in 2400 known cases attempting to cross the central Mediterranean.
In 2017, Italy reached a controversial deal with Libya, and several years later, Albania accepted the deported immigrants.
Although the G7 (G7) countries (G7) are several years later, the conditions for immigration detention centres are still being described harshly.
Immigration from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and other African countries have been recorded in dozens of detention centers in Libya, run by militia, and are accused of torture and other ill-treatment.
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that “trafficking, torture, forced labour, under unbearable detention conditions” in Libya “massive”.
“Far away from the United States, better”: Rubio
In 2019, at least 53 immigrants were killed in an immigration detention center in Tajura, which was killed in a false airstrike by Haftar troops about 15 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli. In the days after the tragedy, officials began to re-attract new immigrants to the same facility.
On several occasions, mass graves containing immigrant bodies were located in Libya. The International Organization for Migration told Reuters that the bodies of at least 19 migrants were found in the grave in February.
The U.S. State Department also noted that in recent months, Libya has “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions”, despite the transition from a democratic administration to a Trump-led Republican White House.
The new government, among other ways, is trying to encourage immigrants to voluntarily leave by threatening steep fines, attempting to deprive legal status and cancel apps of immigrants used for asylum claims over the past two years.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hinted last week that Washington is seeking to expand the number of countries that may expel people.
“It's getting further and further away from the United States,” Rubio said at a cabinet meeting at the White House last Wednesday.
Listen to undocumented US resident legal analysts discussing the current climate: [MEDIA]
Expand the list of countries to receive
In less than four months, the government has sent immigrants to Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador, as well as its military bases in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Democrats have slammed the head of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and some Republican congressmen who released approval videos shot in El Salvador’s notorious Centro de Confinamiento del terrorismo (Cecot).
