Overview
- The Benghazi-based administration issued a decree late Tuesday that bars nationals of Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia from entering Libya through land, sea and air ports.
- The order exempts accredited diplomats and consular staff and allows education and medical workers to enter if they hold valid approvals and work contracts.
- Officials said the measure is meant to reorganize foreign nationals’ entry to Libya, a step framed by eastern authorities as an effort to reduce departures from its northern coast.
- Human-rights groups and U.N. investigators have documented mass arrests and widespread abuses in Libya’s detention centres, and rights monitors warn the ban could worsen protection gaps for migrants and refugees.
- Libya remains split between a Benghazi-based authority aligned with Khalifa Haftar and a Tripoli-based internationally recognized government, and the country hosts more than 900,000 migrants who often try to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.