Libya’s rival governments both denied on Wednesday that they had agreed to receive deported immigrants from the United States, saying this would violate the North African nation’s sovereignty.
U.S. officials said on Tuesday that the Trump administration was planning to transfer migrants on a U.S. military plane to Libya, which has been divided for years between two hostile administrations. They said the flight could leave as soon as Wednesday.
The denials were issued by both the internationally recognized government in the capital, Tripoli, which controls western Libya, and by the authorities in eastern Libya, under the control of the warlord Khalifa Hifter.
The Tripoli-based government issued a statement denying “any agreement or coordination” over the entry of deported migrants, and stressed its “rejection of the use of Libyan territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent.”
The Tripoli government’s statement noted that some “parallel entities” might have struck a deal with Washington — an apparent reference to some authority in eastern Libya.
If that were the case, the Tripoli government insisted that such agreements “do not represent the Libyan state and are not legally or politically binding.”
On Wednesday, a statement from the foreign ministry of Mr. Hifter’s administration in the east said that it, too, “firmly rejects the existence of any agreements or understandings concerning the resettlement of migrants of any nationality whether African, European, American or otherwise.”
Washington has formal relations only with the Tripoli government. But Mr. Hifter’s son, Saddam, who is also the deputy general commander of the military of eastern Libya, was in Washington last week. He met with several Trump administration officials and it is possible that the military in eastern Libya struck its own deal with the United States.
Mr. Trump also had friendly dealings in his first term with Mr. Hifter, who controls Libya’s lucrative oil fields.
The possible transport of deportees to Libya would be striking because of what critics cite as its abysmal record in its treatment of refugees and migrants.
A major transit point for migrants headed to Europe, Libya operates numerous detention facilities for migrants that Amnesty International branded a “hellscape” in a 2021 report, saying it had found evidence of sexual violence against both adult and child prisoners.
The Global Detention Project says detained migrants in Libya endure “physical mistreatment and torture,” forced labor and even slavery.