The curious case of U.S. migrants and Libya

There is a Chinese phrase ‘May you live in interesting times’, which I recently found out is not really a Chinese proverb but more of a curse.It's an expression that gained popularity in the middle of the last century, likely originating in the United States. The phrase is meant to be ironic, as "interesting" times are often times of turmoil and hardship. 

We truly are living in “interesting times”. This last week there have been a barrage of reports, first by Reuters, citing officials and then by the New York Times, thatthe Trumpadministration was planning to deport a group of migrants to Libya on a U.S.military plane.

In early May, CNN and other outlets said that the White House planned to send migrants to third countries includingLibya and Rwanda. The media reports of a migrant’s deal came as one of Libya’s military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s sons, SaddamHaftar, was visiting Washington. Libya is split between the UN-recognized GNU in the west, and a rivaladministration backed by Khalifa Haftar that rules from Benghazi and Tobruk in the east.

But it appears now that the two rival Libyan factions can agree on one thing- they don’t want U.S. migrants being shipped to their country, denying that they had agreed to receive deported immigrants from the United States, saying this would violate the North African nation’s sovereignty.

It is now the subject of a court order in the U.S., but I am just curious, did anyone ask the Libyans? Last weekend several Libyan political parties put out a joint statement urging the Libyan authorities to officially reject any such plan saying 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 added 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. But the most telling part of the statement was that they acknowledged the right of states to manage their own migration policies, adding, “This must not turn into a violation of people’s dignity or an exploitation of the most vulnerable regions in the world.”

Here are Libyan politicians schooling one of the world’s supposed democracies in the application of humanity, law and dare I say it, concern.

*Kieran Baker is an Emmy award winning journalist who has started up various networks including Al Jazeera English, Bloomberg TV Africa and TRT World.