Libya

Thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa wait near the coast in Tunisia for an opportunity to make the treacherous voyage across the Mediterranean. Under an agreement signed with the European Union, the Tunisian government does what it can to stop them. NGOs and migrants accuse the Tunisian coastguard of deliberately sinking migrant boats at sea, leaving those on board to drown. Others say migrants are regularly bused out to the desert and abandoned. We investigate these allegations and meet the humans caught in the crossfire of a political battle over migration.

A YouTuber who says he has travelled to every country has revealed how he had to spend thousands going to one place after the task of getting a Visa proved exceptionally difficult

A YouTuber who claims to have travelled to “all 197 countries in the world” has revealed which nation was the toughest to obtain a visa for. In recent years, American travel vlogger Drew Binsky has built up a following of over five millions subscribers and millions of views as he documents his travels across all corners of the globe.

In one of his latest videos, he shared the five countries he has found hardest to be granted a visa for. As he reflected on some of his earlier trips, he revealed that four of the five most difficult countries to gain access too were Iran, Eritrea, Syria and Venezuela.

He went on to disclose that it was Libya in North Africa that was the hardest to enter, he said that the “whole process was so confusing” and that it gave him “so much anxiety”.

Saying that they don’t grant tourist visas, he said that if you do want to visit for a holiday then you will have to opt for a business visa.

In order to get the business visa, he said that he had two options, either to go to the Libyan embassy in Washington, DC, USA or take a trip to Rome, Italy. Having opted for the latter, he chose to pay $500 (£375.72) to shorten his wait for the visa from a maximum of 14 days to a shorter period that ended up being five business days.

After finally making it to Libya for a three-day break, he said that the entire expedition, with the visa and his flights to Rome included, set him back by nearly $5,000 (£3,756.97).

While forking out the huge amount for the trip, he said: “That’s just part of the process, if you want to visit every country that’s what you have to do for Libya, all the land borders are closed you have to fly in and have to get it that way and it takes forever, and it’s annoying.”

Despite the eye-watering cost for such a short visit, he said that he was “super happy” to have made the “awesome” trip.

While there are four different types of visa available, the two that Drew referenced were a tourist/visitor and a business visa.

Although the rules differ depending on which country you’re travelling too, a visitor visa grants people to temporarily visit a country for tourism, visiting family and friends, and some other activities that are also allowed.

However, a business visa differs somewhat in that foreign nationals must be visiting in order to carry out business activities including going to meetings or conferences. The exact rules on what constitutes as business activities can vary from country to country.

The White House has sent letters to 20 different countries this week announcing new tariffs.

US President Donald Trump has issued a new round of tariff letters to six countries, including Algeria, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova and the Philippines.

The letters, which were sent on Wednesday, call for tariffs of 30 percent on Algeria and Iraq; 25 percent on Brunei, Libya and Moldova; 20 percent on the Philippines – the largest of the trading partners announced on Wednesday. The tariffs are expected to start on August 1.

Trump posted the letters on Truth Social after the expiration of a 90-day negotiating period that began with a baseline levy of 10 percent. Trump is giving countries more time to negotiate before his August 1 deadline, but he has insisted there will be no extensions for the countries that receive letters.

The Census Bureau reported that last year, the US ran a trade imbalance on goods of $1.4bn with Algeria, $5.9bn with Iraq, $900m  with Libya, $4.9bn with the Philippines, $111m with Brunei and $85m with Moldova.

The imbalance represents the difference between what the US exported to those countries and what it imported. None of the countries listed are major industrial rivals to the United States.

Taken together, the trade imbalances with those six countries are essentially a rounding error in a US economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $30 trillion.

Wednesday’s letters are the latest in a slate the Trump Administration sent to nations around the globe. On Monday, he threatened Japan and South Korea with 25 percent tariffs, stepping up pressure on the two historical US allies and a dozen other economies to reach trade deals with Washington.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration began sending letters to countries informing them that the US would begin to reimpose the tariffs it postponed in April. Trump’s erratic approach to tariffs is triggering widespread economic effects on the US and countries around the world.

In the US, the most recent jobs report showed little to no growth in sectors including trade and construction, industries largely impacted by tariffs. The US GDP contracted 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to data released by the US Department of Commerce’s report last month.

This comes amid a handful of looming trade negotiations across the globe that will impact the US economy and many of its key trade partners.

The Trump administration has only put forth two trade agreements thus far, which are with the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

US markets have stayed stable despite the new tariffs. As of 12:30pm Eastern Time (16:30 GMT), the Nasdaq is up 0.5 percent. The S&P 500 is about even with the market open, only up about 0.2 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 0.1 percent.

UN agency IOM says 743 people have died so far this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

At least 60 refugees and migrants are feared missing and drowned at sea after two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said, after attempting the perilous crossing to Europe.

“With dozens feared dead and entire families left in anguish, IOM is once again urging the international community to scale up search and rescue operations and guarantee safe, predictable disembarkation for survivors,” Othman Belbeisi, the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

One shipwreck occurred on June 12 near Alshab port in Tripolitania, the United Nations agency said. Only five survivors were found and 21 people were reported missing. Among those feared dead are six Eritreans, including three women and three children, five Pakistanis, four Egyptians and two Sudanese men. The identities of four others remain unknown.

The second incident occurred on June 13, approximately 35km (22 miles) west of Libya’s Tobruk. According to the sole survivor, who was rescued by fishermen, 39 people are missing.

At least 743 people have died so far this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, including 538 on the Central Mediterranean route, which remains the deadliest known migration route in the world.

In recent years, the European Union has increased efforts to reduce such migration, including by providing equipment and financial support to the Libyan coastguard, a quasi-military organisation linked to militias accused of abuses and other crimes.

NGOs say the phasing out of state-run search and rescue operations has made journeys across the Mediterranean more dangerous. They have also denounced what they see as punitive action by states against charities operating in the Mediterranean.

As a result, many people fleeing conflict and persecution have found themselves stranded in Libya, often held in detention in conditions that rights groups describe as inhumane.

Libya, which is still struggling to recover from years of war and chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi, has been criticised for its treatment of refugees and migrants.

Accusations from rights groups range from extortion to slavery, while smugglers and human traffickers have also taken advantage of the climate of instability in the country.

Authorities in both Egypt and Libya have stopped activists seeking to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza, protest organisers have said, with reports of more detentions and deportations taking place.

“Forty participants of the Global March to Gaza have had their passports taken at a checkpoint on the way out of Cairo,” the organisers of the Global March to Gaza said in a statement on Friday.

“They are being held in the heat and not allowed to move,” they continued, adding that another “15 are being held at hotels”.

The activists are from France, Spain, Canada, Turkiye and the United Kingdom, it said, adding, “We are a peaceful movement and we are complying with Egyptian law.”

The group urged embassies to help secure their release so they could complete their voyage.

Activists arrived in Egypt this week for the Global March to Gaza, a grassroots initiative aiming to pressure Israel to allow the delivery of aid and humanitarian supplies to Gaza’s starving population.

Organisers said that participants from 80 countries were set to begin their march towards Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza, with about 4,000 activists expected to take part.

The overland protest was to coincide with other solidarity efforts, including a boat carrying aid and activists that was intercepted by the Israeli military earlier this week as it attempted to reach Gaza.

Detentions and deportations

According to plans outlined by organisers, participants were to travel by bus to El Arish, a city in the heavily securitised Sinai Peninsula, before walking the final 50km (30 miles) to Rafah. Protesters intended to camp near the border before returning to Cairo on June 19.

However, Egyptian police stopped several groups of foreign nationals en route, forcing vehicles to pull over roughly 30km (20 miles) from Ismailia, just outside the Sinai. Activists said police ordered passengers with non-Egyptian passports to disembark, blocking their passage to Rafah.

Paul Murphy, an independent Irish member of parliament, who has travelled to Egypt to take part, said in a post on X, “We have had our passports confiscated and are being detained. It seems Egyptian authorities have decided to crack down on the Great March To Gaza.”

Mo, a member of the protest march from the Netherlands, said that his group had headed in taxis to Ismailia, but that at a checkpoint near the city foreigners were told to hand over their passports, with only Egyptians allowed through. He also described riot police who came to clear the road of protesters.

Now back in Cairo, Mo and the group from the Netherlands are deciding what to do next.

“We are trying to regroup,” he told Al Jazeera. “A lot of our group is splintered, some have been beaten up by the police… so they’re coming back battered and bruised and broken.”

“It seems like the Egyptian authorities are determined to stop us from reaching anywhere near the border.”

Security sources told the Reuters news agency that at least 88 individuals had been detained or deported from Cairo airport and other locations across the country.

Three airport sources told Reuters that at least 73 foreign nationals were deported on a flight to Istanbul for violating entry protocols, with about 100 more still awaiting deportation at the airport.

Officials at Cairo International Airport said new directives were issued to airlines requiring all passengers travelling to Egypt between June 12 and 16 to hold confirmed return tickets, Reuters reported.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that any visits to the Rafah border area must be coordinated in advance with Egyptian embassies or official bodies, citing security concerns in the Sinai.

Organisers of the march maintain they coordinated the trip with authorities and called on the government to release those detained.

Convoy blocked in Libya

Separately, a land convoy known as “Soumoud”, which had departed Tunisia carrying activists from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, was stopped on Friday morning at the entrance to Sirte, a city in Libya under the control of forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar.

“The caravan was barred from passing through at the entrance to the city of Sirte,” Tunisian organiser Wael Naouar said in a video posted on Facebook.

Naouar said the convoy needs Egyptian authorisation to reach Gaza but had received mixed messages from local security officials. “Some told us we could cross in a few hours. Others insisted that ‘Egypt has denied [passage] and therefore you will not pass,’” he said.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to block demonstrators from entering Gaza from Egypt, claiming people involved were “jihadist protesters”.

“I expect the Egyptian authorities to prevent them from reaching the Egypt-Israel border and not allow them to carry out provocations and try to enter Gaza,” he added.

It comes as Israel continues its relentless air strikes on Gaza, while severely restricting the flow of aid, including food, water, and medical supplies, as humanitarian experts warn that the enclave could fall into full-scale famine unless Israel lifts the blockade.

The Sudanese Armed Forces say they have withdrawn from the area as part of its ‘defensive arrangements’.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have said their fighters have seized a strategic zone on the border with Egypt and Libya, as the regular government-aligned army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), announced its withdrawal from the area.

The announcements on Wednesday came a day after SAF accused forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar of launching a cross-border attack alongside the RSF, the first allegation of direct Libyan involvement in the Sudanese war.

“As part of its defensive arrangements to repel aggression, our forces today evacuated the triangle area overlooking the borders between Sudan, Egypt and Libya,” army spokesperson Nabil Abdallah said in a statement.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

القيادة العامة للقوات المسلحة

تعميم صحفي

الأربعاء ١١ يونيو ٢٠٢٥م

في إطار ترتيباتها الدفاعية لصد العدوان، أخلت قواتنا اليوم منطقة المثلث المطلة علي الحدود بين السودان ومصر وليبيا.

(نصر من الله وفتح قريب)

مكتب الناطق الرسمي باسم القوات المسلحة

General… pic.twitter.com/3o5Z1xDfb0

— القوات المسلحة السودانية (@SudaneseAF) June 11, 2025

Since April 2023, the brutal civil war has pitted SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his erstwhile ally Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the RSF, in a bitter power struggle.

In a statement on Wednesday, the RSF said its fighters had “liberated the strategic triangle area”, adding that army forces had retreated southward “after suffering heavy losses”.

SAF said on Tuesday that Haftar’s troops, in coordination with the RSF, attacked its border positions in a move it called “a blatant aggression against Sudan”.

Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also accused the United Arab Emirates of backing the assault, describing it as a “dangerous escalation” and a “flagrant violation of international law”.

It also described the latest clash as part of a broader foreign-backed conspiracy.

Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, has long maintained close ties with both the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

While Cairo has supported Sudan’s leadership under Burhan since the war began in April 2023, Khartoum has repeatedly accused the UAE of supplying the RSF with weapons, which the Emirati government has denied.

Tensions between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi escalated in May after drone strikes hit the wartime capital of Port Sudan for the first time since the outbreak of the war.

After the attacks, Sudan severed its diplomatic ties with the UAE and declared it an “aggressor state”.

Since the war began more than two years ago, multiple countries have been drawn in. It has effectively split Sudan in two, with SAF holding the centre, east and north, including the capital Khartoum, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, including four million who fled abroad, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Efforts by international mediators to halt the fighting have so far failed, with violence continuing to escalate across the western Darfur region and the Kordofan region in the country’s south.

The announcement marks the first time direct Libyan involvement in Sudan’s ongoing war has been alleged.

The Sudanese army has accused the forces of eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar of attacking Sudanese border posts, the first time it has accused its northwestern neighbour of direct involvement in the country’s civil war, now in its third year.

The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whom the military also accused of joint involvement in the recent attack, has drawn in multiple countries, while international attempts at bringing about peace have so far failed.

Early in the war, Sudan had accused Haftar of supporting the RSF via weapons deliveries. It has long accused Haftar’s ally the United Arab Emirates of supporting the RSF as well, including via direct drone strikes last month. The UAE denies those allegations.

Egypt, which has also backed Haftar, has long supported the Sudanese army.

In a statement, Sudanese army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said the attack took place in the Libya-Egypt-Sudan border triangle, an area to the north of one of the war’s main front lines, el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

He said the attack constitutes “a blatant aggression against Sudan”.

“We will defend our country and our national sovereignty, and will prevail, regardless of the extent of the conspiracy and aggression supported by the United Arab Emirates and its militias in the region,” Abdallah added.

Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the UAE of backing the assault, describing it as a “dangerous escalation” and a “flagrant violation of international law”.

“Sudan’s border with Libya has long served as a major corridor for weapons and mercenaries supporting the terrorist militia, funded by the UAE and coordinated by Haftar’s forces and affiliated terrorist groups,” it said in a statement.

There was no immediate response from Haftar’s forces.

The RSF has not issued an official statement, but a source within the group said that its fighters had taken control on Monday of the entrance to Jebel Uweinat, a remote mountain area that sits where the three countries meet, according to the AFP news agency.

Thousands of activists from across the globe are marching to the Gaza Strip to try to break Israel’s suffocating siege and draw international attention to the genocide it is perpetrating there.

Approximately 1,000 people participating in the Tunisian-led stretch of the Global March to Gaza, known as the Sumud Convoy, arrived in Libya on Tuesday morning, a day after they departed the Tunisian capital, Tunis. They are now resting in Libya after a full day of travel, but do not yet have permission to cross the eastern part of the North African country.

The group, which mostly comprises citizens of the Maghreb, the Northwest African region, is expected to grow as people join from countries it passes through as it makes its way towards the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

How will they do it? When will they get there? What is this all about?

Here’s all you need to know:

Who’s involved?

The Coordination of Joint Action for Palestine is leading the Sumud Convoy, which is tied to the Global March for Palestine.

In total, there are about 1,000 people, travelling on a nine-bus convoy, with the aim of pressurising world leaders to take action on Gaza.

Sumud is supported by the Tunisian General Labour Union, the National Bar Association, the Tunisian League for Human Rights, and the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

It is coordinating with activists and individuals from 50 countries who are flying into the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on June 12, so that they can all march to Rafah together.

Some of those activists are affiliated with an umbrella of grassroots organisations, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Codepink Women for Peace in the United States and Jewish Voice for Labour in the United Kingdom.

How will they reach the Rafah crossing?

The convoy of cars and buses has reached Libya. After taking a brief rest, the plan is for it to continue towards Cairo.

“Most people around me are feeling courage and anger [about what’s happening in Gaza],” said Ghaya Ben Mbarek, an independent Tunisian journalist who joined the march just before the convoy crossed into Libya.

Ben Mbarek is driven by the belief that, as a journalist, she has to “stand on the right side of history by stopping a genocide and stopping people from dying from hunger”.

Once Sumud links up with fellow activists in Cairo, they will head to El Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and then embark on a three-day march to the Rafah crossing to Gaza.

Will the activists face obstacles?

The convoy has yet to receive permission to pass through eastern Libya from authorities in the region. Libya has two rival administrations, and while the convoy has been welcomed in the west, discussions are still ongoing with authorities in the east, an official from the convoy told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

The activists had previously told The Associated Press news agency they do not expect to be allowed into Gaza, yet they hope their journey will pressure world leaders to force Israel to end its genocidal war.

Another concern lies in Egypt, which classifies the stretch between El Arish and the Rafah border crossing as a military zone and does not allow anyone to enter unless they live there.

The Egyptian government has not issued a statement on whether it will allow the Global March to Gaza to pass through its territory.

“I doubt they would be allowed to march towards Rafah,” a longtime Egyptian activist, whose name is being withheld for their safety, said.

“It’s always national security first,” they told Al Jazeera.

If the convoy makes it to Rafah, it will have to face the Israeli army at the crossing.

Why did the activists choose this approach?

Palestine supporters have tried everything over the years as Gaza suffered.

Since Israel’s genocidal war began 20 months ago, civilians have protested in major capitals and taken legal action against elected officials for abetting Israel’s mass killing campaign in Gaza.

Activists have sailed on several humanitarian aid boats towards Gaza, trying to break a stifling blockade that Israel has imposed since 2007; all were attacked or intercepted by Israel.

In 2010, in international waters, Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of the six boats in the Freedom Flotilla sailing for Gaza. They killed nine people, and one more person died of their wounds later.

The Freedom Flotilla kept trying as Gaza suffered one Israeli assault after another.

Israel’s current war on Gaza prompted 12 activists from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition to set sail on board the Madleen from Italy on June 1, hoping to pressure world governments to stop Israel’s genocide.

However, the activists were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters on June 9.

Will the Global March to Gaza succeed?

The activists will try, even if they are pretty sure they will not get into Gaza.

They say standing idle will only enable Israel to continue its genocide until the people of Gaza are all dead or ethnically cleansed.

“The message people here want to send to the world is that even if you stop us by sea, or air, then we will come, by the thousands, by land,” said Ben Mbarek.

“We will literally cross deserts … to stop people from dying from hunger,” she told Al Jazeera.

How bad are things in Gaza?

Since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has strangled the food and supplies entering the Palestinian enclave, engineering a famine that has likely killed thousands and could kill hundreds of thousands more.

Israel has carpet-bombed Gaza, killing at least 54,927 people and injuring more than 126,000.

Legal scholars previously told Al Jazeera the suffering in Gaza suggests Israel is deliberately inflicting conditions to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in whole or in part – the precise definition of genocide.

Global outrage has grown as Israel continues to kill civilians in thousands, including children, aid workers, medics and journalists.

Since March, Israel has tightened its chokehold on Gaza, completely stopping aid and then shooting at people lining up for what little aid it allows in, leading to rare statements of condemnation from Western governments.

WASHINGTON — President Trump is resurrecting the travel ban policy from his first term, signing a proclamation Wednesday night preventing people from a dozen countries from entering the United States.

The countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In addition to the ban, which takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday Eastern time, there will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump said in his proclamation.

The list results from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S. and whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk.

During his first term, Trump issued an executive order in January 2017 banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

It was one of the most chaotic and confusing moments of his young presidency. Travelers from those nations were either barred from getting on their flights to the U.S. or detained at U.S. airports after they landed. They included students and faculty as well as businesspeople, tourists and people visiting friends and family.

The order, often referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban,” was retooled amid legal challenges, until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

The ban affected various categories of travelers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Koreans and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

Trump and others have defended the initial ban on national security grounds, arguing it was aimed at protecting the country and not founded on anti-Muslim bias. However, the president had called for an explicit ban on Muslims during his first campaign for the White House.

Megerian and Amiri write for the Associated Press.

In May 1939, a ship called the St. Louis departed from Hamburg, Germany, with 937 passengers, most of them Jews fleeing the Holocaust. They had been promised disembarkation rights in Cuba, but when the ship reached Havana, the government refused to let it dock. The passengers made desperate pleas to the U.S., including directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to allow them entry. Roosevelt never responded. The State Department wired back that they should “wait their turn” and enter legally.

As if that were a realistic option available to them.

After lingering off the coast of Florida hoping for a merciful decision from Washington, the St. Louis and its passengers returned to Europe, where the Nazis were on the march. Ultimately, 254 of the ship’s passengers died in the Holocaust.

In response to this shameful failure to provide protection, the nations of the world came together and drafted an international treaty to protect those fleeing persecution. The treaty, the 1951 Refugee Convention, and its 1967 Protocol, has been ratified by more than 75% of nations, including the United States.

Because the tragedy of the St. Louis was fresh in the minds of the treaty drafters, they included an unequivocal prohibition on returning fleeing refugees to countries where their “life or freedom would be threatened.” This is understood to prohibit sending them to a country where they would face these threats, as well as sending them to a country that would then send them on to a third country where they would be at such risk.

All countries that are parties to the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees are bound by this prohibition on return (commonly referred to by its French translation, “nonrefoulement”). In the U.S., Congress enacted the 1980 Refugee Act, expressly adopting the treaty language. The U.S. is also a party to the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits the return of individuals to places where they would be in danger of “being subjected to torture.”

In both Trump administrations, there have been multiple ways in which the president has attempted to eviscerate and undermine the protections guaranteed by treaty obligation and U.S. law. The most drastic among these measures have been the near-total closure of the border to asylum seekers and the suspension of entry of already approved and vetted refugees.

However, none of these measures has appeared so clearly designed to make a mockery of the post-World War II refugee protection framework as the administration’s proposals and attempts to send migrants from the U.S. to Libya and Rwanda.

Although there are situations in which the U.S. could lawfully send a migrant to a third country, it would still be bound by the obligation not to return the person to a place where their “life or freedom would be threatened.” The choices of Libya and Rwanda — rather than, for example, Canada or France — can only be read as an intentional and open flouting of that prohibition.

Libya is notorious for its abuse of migrants, with widespread infliction of torture, sexual violence, forced labor, starvation and slavery. Leading advocacy groups such as Amnesty International call it a “hellscape.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has stated in no uncertain terms that Libya is not to be considered a safe third country for migrants. The U.S. is clearly aware of conditions there; the State Department issued its highest warning level for Libya, advising against travel to Libya because of crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict.

Although conditions in Rwanda are not as extreme, the supreme courts of both Israel and the United Kingdom have ruled that agreements to send migrants to Rwanda are unlawful. The two countries had attempted to outsource their refugee obligations by calling Rwanda a “safe third country” to which asylum seekers could be sent to apply for protection.

Israel and the U.K.’s highest courts found that Rwanda — contrary to its stated commitment when entering these agreements — had in fact refused to consider the migrants’ asylum claims, and instead, routinely expelled them, resulting in their return to countries of persecution, in direct violation of the prohibition on refoulement. The U.K. court also cited Rwanda’s poor human rights record, including “extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture.”

If the Trump administration had even a minimal commitment to abide by its international and domestic legal obligations, plans to send migrants to Libya or Rwanda would be a nonstarter. But the plans are very much alive, and it is not far-fetched to assume that their intent is to further undermine internationally agreed upon norms of refugee protection dating to World War II. Why else choose the two countries that have repeatedly been singled out for violating the rights of refugees?

As in Israel and the U.K., there will be court challenges should the U.S. move forward with its proposed plan of sending migrants to Libya and Rwanda. It is hard to imagine a court that could rule that the U.S. would not be in breach of its legal obligation of nonrefoulement by delivering migrants to these two countries.

Having said that, and despite the clear language of the treaty and statute, it has become increasingly difficult to predict how the courts will rule when the Supreme Court has issued decisions overturning long-accepted precedent, and lower courts have arrived at diametrically opposed positions on some of the most contentious immigration issues.

In times like these, we should not depend solely on the courts. There are many of us here in the U.S. who believe that the world’s refugee framework — developed in response to the profound moral failure of turning back the St. Louis — is worth fighting for. We need to take a vocal stand. The clear message must be that those fleeing persecution should never be returned to persecution.

If we take such a stand, we will be in the good company of those who survived the Holocaust and continue to speak out for the rights of all refugees.

Karen Musalo is a law professor and the founding director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Law, San Francisco. She is also lead co-author of “Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach.”

A police officer killed as the country sees renewed deadly clashes in the aftermath of the killing of a militia commander.

Several ministers with Libya’s internationally recognised government have resigned in support of the protesters calling for Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah to step down.

The government late on Friday said a police officer was killed in an “attempted assault” on the prime minister’s office as thousands of Libyans marched into squares and various areas in the capital, Tripoli.

“He was shot by unknown attackers and succumbed to his injuries,” a statement said, adding that members of a group who mixed with the protesters tried to set the office on fire using Molotov cocktails.

Economy and Trade Minister Mohamed al-Hawij, Local Government Minister Badr Eddin al-Tumi and Minister of Housing Abu Bakr al-Ghawi resigned, according to a video released by two of those ministers as well as local media reports.

The government had earlier on Friday denied reports of the ministers’ resignations.

Meanwhile, in the city of Misrata, protesters gathered in support of Dbeibah and his government.

The protests follow a wave of violence in Tripoli in the past week that led to the deaths of at least eight civilians. The deadly clashes started after powerful militia leader Abdelghani al-Kikli, also known as Gheniwa, was killed in an ambush at a military base.

Dbeibah attempted to consolidate power and assert control after the killing, with more clashes following later in the week.

Before the demonstrations, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) had emphasised “citizens’ right to peaceful protest” and warned against “any escalation of violence”.

Reporting from Tripoli, Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina said Libyans want to see a major change as people are “extremely frustrated” with the security situation.

“Libyans are calling for elections and want to be able to voice their opinion and put those that they want in power,” he said.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday that Cairo was closely monitoring developments in Libya, and urged all parties to exercise “maximum restraint”. It also advised Egyptian citizens in Libya to remain cautious and stay in their homes until the situation is clarified.

Libya has been in turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, which ended up dividing the country between two rival administrations.

Dbeibah’s Government of National Unity (GNU) has maintained control over western Libya since 2021, while an administration backed by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar leads in the east.

Libya was scheduled to hold national elections at the end of 2021, which were postponed indefinitely due to disputes over candidate eligibility, constitutional rules, and concerns over security as the rival governments failed to agree on a framework.

A Los Angeles construction worker from Vietnam was among 13 immigrants roused by guards in full combat gear around 2:30 a.m. one day last week in a Texas detention facility, shackled, forced onto a bus and told they would be deported to Libya, two of the detainees’ lawyers said.

“It was very aggressive. They weren’t allowed to do anything,” said Tin Thanh Nguyen, an attorney for the Los Angeles man, whom he did not identify for fear of retaliation.

Libya, the politically unstable country in North Africa, is beset by “terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict,” according to the U.S. State Department. Human rights groups have documented inhumane conditions at detention facilities and migrant camps, including torture, forced labor and rape.

The construction worker, who has a criminal conviction on his record, had lived in the U.S. for decades and has a wife and teenage daughter. He was arrested after appearing at an annual immigration check-in at a Los Angeles office two months ago and then shuffled around to various detention facilities before arriving at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall.

In the early morning hours of May 7, he was placed on the bus from the detention facility south to what was likely Lackland Air Force Base. From there, he and the rest of the group sat for hours on the tarmac in front of a military plane in the predawn dark, unsure what was going to happen. The men hailed from Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mali, Burundi, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico and the Philippines, the attorneys said. None were from Libya.

“My client and the other men on the bus were silent,” Nguyen said in court files. “My client was extremely scared.”

The plane hatch was open. Military personnel bustled in and out, appearing to bring in supplies and fuel the plane. Photographers positioned themselves in front of the military aircraft.

“Suddenly the bus starts moving and heading back to the detention facility,” said Johnny Sinodis, an attorney for another detainee, a Filipino who grew up and went to college in the United States and also had a criminal conviction.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts had issued a warning to the administration to halt any immediate removal to Libya or any other third country, as it would violate a previous court order that officials must provide detainees with due process and notice in their own language. Lawyers had scrambled to get the order after media reports confirmed what their clients had told them: Removals to Libya appeared imminent.

Sinodis said his client and others were returned to the detention unit and placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours.

In his declaration, he said his client spoke to a Mexican and a Bolivian national who were in the group. Each had been told that their home countries would accept them, but the officials still said they were going to send them to Libya.

It’s been a week since the incident, and the lawyers said they are still fighting to stop their clients deportations to a third country.

The Trump administration deported hundreds of mostly Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador, invoking a wartime law to speedily remove accused gang members. Their deportation drew immediate challenges and became the most contentious piece of the immigration crackdown. Officials have also sent people to Panama who were not from that country.

This month, the foreign minister of Rwanda said in a televison interview it was in talks with U.S. officials to take in deported migrants.

It’s unclear how Libya came to be a possible destination for the immigrants. Two governments claim power in the nation. The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity has denied any deal with the Trump administration. The Government of National Stability, based in Benghazi, also rejected reports that it would take deportees.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that it had information that at least 100 Venezuelans held in the Salvadoran megaprison weren’t told they were going to be deported to a third country, had no access to a lawyer and were unable to challenge the removal.

“This situation raises serious concerns regarding a wide array of rights that are fundamental to both U.S. and international law,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement. “The manner in which some of the individuals were detained and deported — including the use of shackles on them — as well as the demeaning rhetoric used against migrants, has also been profoundly disturbing.”

Sinodis said his client had already been in custody for months and been told that he would be deported to the Philippines in late April. But that month, he was transferred from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., to Texas. An officer in Tacoma told him the decision to move him there came from “headquarters,” according to court documents.

On May 5, he was scheduled to be interviewed by two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Texas. He expected to learn of his deportation date. Instead, they handed him a one-page document that said he would be deported to Libya. He was shocked, Sinodis said.

The man asked the officers whether there was anything he or his attorney could do to avoid this. They said no.

Nguyen said his client, who doesn’t speak English fluently, had a similar experience on the same day. The officers handed him a document in English that they said would allow him to be free in Libya. He doesn’t even know where Libya is and refused to sign the document. The officers told him he would be deported no matter what he did.

The next day, Sinodis said, his client’s commissary and phone accounts were zeroed out.

Sinodis finally reached an officer at the detention center who told him, “That’s crazy,” when asked about Libya. His client must have misheard, he said. But his client, who grew up on the West Coast, speaks fluent English.

Then on May 7, as things unfolded, the attorney reached another officer at the facility, who said he had no information that the man was going to Libya, and referred him back to an officer in Tacoma. A supervisor downplayed the situation.

“I can assure you this is not an emergency because the emergency does not exist,” the supervisor told him, according to court documents.

Shortly after noon that day, a detention center officer who identified himself as Garza called and told him he was looking into it, but so far had “no explanation” for why his client was told this, but he also couldn’t guarantee it didn’t happen.

Less than an hour later, his client called to tell him that he had been taken to an air base. He said when he was pulled out of his cell in the early morning, he saw the same two officers that interviewed him and asked him to sign the removal papers.

“He asks the officers, ‘Are we still going to Libya?” Sinodis said. “They said yes.”

The United Nations Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) warns that the situation in the country could ‘spiral out of control’.

The United Nations has called for calm as fighting has resumed in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, a day after authorities declared order had been restored.

The UN Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) warned on Wednesday that the situation in the country could “spiral out of control”.

“UNSMIL reiterates its calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in all areas, allowing safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians trapped in intense conflict zones,” the mission wrote on X.

“Attacking and damaging civilian infrastructure, physically harming civilians, and jeopardising the lives and safety of the population may constitute crimes under international law. Those responsible will be held accountable for their actions,” it added.

Clashes erupted between the Rada militia and the 444 Brigade, loyal to Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, in key areas of Tripoli, including the port, the AFP news agency reported, quoting a security source.

The official called the ongoing fighting “urban warfare” with intermittent clashes in residential areas and the use of light and medium weapons.

The fighting calmed down later on Wednesday after the government announced a truce, Tripoli residents told the Reuters news agency.

“Regular forces, in coordination with the relevant security authorities, have begun taking the necessary measures to ensure calm, including the deployment of neutral units,” the government’s Ministry of Defence said.

Fighting across Tripoli

Clashes broke out on Monday night after reports that Abdelghani al-Kikli, leader of the Support and Stability Apparatus (SSA), a militia that controls the southern district of Abu Salim, was killed.

According to local authorities, at least six people were killed in Monday’s fighting.

While Tuesday morning was calm, the fighting restarted overnight with major battles in the capital.

For residents, the uncertainty brought by the attacks was “terrorising”, a father of three told Reuters from the Dahra area.

“I had my family in one room to avoid random shelling,” he added.

Al-Dbeibah ordered what he called irregular armed groups to be dismantled, including Rada.

With the seizure of the SSA territory by factions allied with al-Dbeibah, including the 444 and 111 brigades, Rada is the last significant faction not allied with the prime minister.

Since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has struggled to recover.

In 2014, the country split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by al-Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east dominated by commander Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army.