Benghazi (Somalia Today) — Libya’s eastern-based government has banned nationals of Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia from entering territory under its control, as authorities across the divided North African country intensify restrictions on migrants and refugees.
The decree, issued Tuesday by the parallel administration in Benghazi, bars citizens of the four African countries from entering Libya through “all land, sea and air ports”.
A source in the eastern administration told Reuters that the move aimed to “reorganise foreign nationals’ entry” into Libya.
The government is headed by Osama Hamad and aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forces control eastern Libya and large parts of the south.
It operates separately from the internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, based in Tripoli, which came to power through a UN-backed process in 2021.
The decree exempts members of accredited diplomatic and consular missions and their families.
It also allows workers in education, medicine and allied health professions to enter, provided they obtain official approvals and valid work contracts.
Migrant route
Somalis have for years used Libya as one of the main North African transit routes towards Europe, often crossing through Ethiopia, Sudan or the Sahara before attempting the dangerous Mediterranean journey.
Libya has also long served as a destination and transit country for Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians fleeing conflict, repression or poverty and seeking work or passage to Europe by sea.
The decision comes as Sudan’s war, which erupted in April 2023, continues to drive large numbers of people across borders.
The UN refugee agency estimated in March that more than 559,000 Sudanese refugees had fled to Libya since the start of the conflict between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Many entered through the remote southeast, including the Kufra region, after crossing dangerous desert routes via Chad.
The International Organisation for Migration said in its latest Libya migrant report that more than 936,000 migrants were present in the country in January and February, with Sudanese nationals making up the largest share.
Crackdown
The entry ban comes as rights groups warn of an escalating campaign against migrants by rival Libyan authorities.
Amnesty International said Tuesday that both the Tripoli-based government and authorities in the east had carried out mass arrests, arbitrary detentions and collective expulsions over the past month.
“It is abhorrent that rival Libyan authorities are uniting in the abuse of migrants and refugees,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
The rights group said official rhetoric had fuelled anti-migrant protests, vigilantism and online hate speech.
Earlier this month, hundreds of Libyans blocked the UN refugee agency’s office in Tripoli, chanting slogans against the settlement of migrants in the country.
The latest restrictions also follow several deadly incidents on Libya’s migration routes.
At least 15 migrant bodies, including that of a girl, washed ashore along Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast last week after a boat believed to be carrying dozens of people capsized near Tobruk.
In February, a UN human rights report said migrants in Libya faced killings, torture, rape, forced labour and arbitrary detention.
One Eritrean woman held in a trafficking house in Tobruk told investigators: “I wish I died. It was a journey of hell.”
Libya plunged into years of instability after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Since 2014, the country has been split between rival authorities in the east and west, while armed groups, traffickers and security forces compete for control of lucrative migration routes.
European governments have sought cooperation with Libyan authorities to reduce departures across the Mediterranean, but rights groups say such policies have trapped vulnerable people in a country where they face systematic abuse.
