The Trump administration is in talks with several African nations, most notably Libya, in an attempt to secure a deal similar to the one already in place with El Salvador. There has also been reporting that the administration is in similar “talks” in order to relocate the entire population of Gaza to Libya, in exchange for Libyan funds frozen in international institutions since 2011. For decades, Libya has been a country wracked by civil war, instability, and foreign intervention. Parts of the Libyan coast are just under 200 miles from Italy, and so many migrants fleeing poverty and instability in Africa and the Middle East chart a dangerous course through Libya and onto overcrowded, unsafe small boats in an attempt to claim refugee status in the European Union once on land in Italy.
Each year, thousands of refugees lose their lives making this dangerous journey. Rather than organizing a humanitarian response, European governments have deputized the Libyan Coast Guard, supplying them with funding and information so that the Libyans can do what European governments cannot: the widespread, brutal repression of the rights of some of the most desperate people on Earth. Conditions in Libyan migrant detention centers have long been known to be hot spots of human rights violations, including torture, sexual assault, and lawless killings by guards. Just last year the State Department declared that “For persons held in migrant detention facilities, there was no access to immigration courts or due process.”
The Trump administration is no doubt aware of the terrible conditions that would be faced by immigrants sent to Libya. They likely don’t care, and as the new budget recently passed by the House and soon to be voted on by the Senate seeks to nearly quadruple the ICE budget, they are desperate to secure places to send kidnapped immigrants before the courts have a chance to intervene. The Democrats can’t stop this from happening and the courts are often too slow to react, as was the case with Kilmar Obrego Garcia. What is needed is broad organizing within our communities, so that we can mobilize before someone is taken into custody, not protest once they have already been whisked out of the country. The power of the people, united in solidarity and willing to resist the attacks of the Trump administration is the only power capable of putting a halt to these dangerous developments.
