On Sunday, the Tobruk Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency, in eastern Libya, announced the deportation of seven Egyptian migrants, through the Imssaad Al-Saloum border crossing.
The agency indicated that the deportees were transferred from the Bab Al-Zaitoun shelter, with six of them suffering from Hepatitis.
In June, eastern Libyan forces deported thousands of Egyptians who were in Libya illegally, sending them back to Egypt on foot across the land border, Egyptian and Libyan security sources told Reuters.
A Libyan security source told Reuters that 4,000 migrants had been found during raids on human traffickers, following a shootout between security forces and smugglers.
The Egyptian security source said only about 2,200 of the 4,000 migrants who were found by Libyan security forces were there illegally, and they were the only ones deported. Most of them were Egyptians, but some held other African nationalities.
“When they were deported, they were taken to a location close to the border, and then walked about 2 km into Egypt,” the Egyptian security source added.
The Minister of Labour, Ali Al-Abed said that the Egyptians who were deported from the eastern region in June, had entered Libya illegally.
He also rejected allegations of difficulty in obtaining a Libyan visa, as a justification for entering the country illegally.
During an interview with Al-Wasat TV, the Minister said that the procedures for obtaining a Libyan visa are “easy and available to all workers, whether they are Egyptians or other nationals.”
Earlier this month, the Libyan Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Unit announced the repatriation of around a thousand migrants, who had entered the country illegally back to Egypt and Nigeria.
According to the Unit’s official, Colonel Mohammed Bredi’a, two trips were conducted, the first was a flight from Tripoli to Nigeria. The second involved migrants, predominantly Egyptian nationals, travelling by land to the Imssad border crossing.
A total of 964 migrants were deported, including 664 Egyptians and 300 Nigerians, as reported by Bredi’a.