LIBYA
Gaddafi: Playing the Gadfly Again
 
The recent killing of ten Nigerians in Libya and the country’s expulsion of the UN Refugee Agency has again put Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the eye of storm

By JULIANA EZEOKE

Libya has no doubt, gained some notoriety in the past weeks. First, the country executed 18 prisoners 10 of whom were Nigerians. While the country was still smarting from global condemnations that trailed its action, the Muammar Gaddafi government went ahead and ordered the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR in the country to leave. Libya did not offer any reason for its decision.
No doubt, the “quit” order would further compound the fate of immigrants in the North African country. In fact, should the UNHCR leave, Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the agency said the development would have “wider ramifications since refugees headed for Europe from North Africa and the Middle East are forced back by Italian authorities into Libyan waters. The reason is that Libya has no procedure for registering refugees and the UNHCR, which has been working in Libya since 1991, “is the asylum system in Libya." "This will leave a huge vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers who are there already and, of course, those who continue to arrive steadily on boats," she said. As Libya is not a signatory to the UN's 1951 Convention on Refugees, it lacks a coherent policy on domestic asylum and therefore it is often left to the UNHCR to help Libyan authorities differentiate between refugees and asylum seekers. Currently, about 9,000 refugees, mainly Palestinians, Iraqis, Sudanese and Somalis, had been registered in Libya. And as the UNHCR spokeswoman stated, there are also 3,700 others seeking asylum and majority of them are Eritrea nationals.
Fleming said thousands of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East pass through Libya every year on their way to Europe. According to the UNHCR, more than 67,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in 2008 to try to enter Europe illegally. In the course of crossing the sea, some of them died. European countries, which obviously loathe such immigrants, do not waste time in sending them back to Libya and some other countries from where they departed to Europe. In 2009 for instance, the European Union, EU had political talks with Turkey and Libya on how the two countries could help stem the tide of illegal immigrants into Europe. Turkey is considered the main transit country for illegal immigrants from Asia. As African immigrants converge on Libya, where they set sail for the EU via Malta or the Italian island of Lampedusa, their counterparts from Asia find their way to Europe through the Turkish coast to the Greek islands, the gateway to the EU. In its meeting with Libya and Turkey, Jacques Barrot, EU justice commissioner said the 27-member EU bloc had wanted the two countries to crack down on those who smuggle people into Europe and to also agree to take back the illegal immigrants, Barrot said. More so, it also wanted Libya, which has not signed the Geneva Convention on human rights, to agree to protect persecuted people and make it easier for people to seek asylum in the country. "If we don't link migration to development and diplomacy we won't succeed," Barrot warned.
However, the meeting did not yield the needed result following some obvious obstacles. While Barrot said "Turkey is ready to sign readmission agreements “to take back immigrants who left from its territory," but wanted the EU to extend the agreement to Pakistan and Afghanistan so they would be able to send back immigrants from those countries, Barrot said it was difficult reaching any agreement with Libya. The reason was that the African country put "enormous" financial demands on the EU in exchange for its help. "We proposed 20 million euros, but they are asking for 200 to 300 million," sources in Barrot's entourage said.
Though Libya did not give reasons for directing the UNHCR out of its territory, some observers believe that it would not have been unconnected with the recent criticism of the North African country by the UN. The UN had condemned Gaddafi for declaring jihad against Switzerland, describing the statement as “unacceptable.” Sergei Ordzhonikidze, UN director-general, said "I believe that such declarations on the part of the head of state are inadmissible in international relations." Lutz Guilder, spokesman for Catherine Ashton, foreign affairs chief, also described Gaddafi’s call for jihad as "unfortunate."
Gaddafi made the “unacceptable” call over a Swiss ban on the construction of minarets. Therefore, during his speech to mark the birthday of prophet Muhammed, he had said, "Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism.”
 On the killing of 10 Nigerians by firing squad, analysts also believe that the sudden execution of Nigerian nationals might have followed the recent face off between the two countries over the recent call by Gaddafi that Nigeria be split into two following incessant religious crises. Many Nigerians and international human rights bodies have criticised Libya for executing the Nigerian nationals without giving them fair hearing. Malcom Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa said "In the case of Libya, we fear that death sentences are handed down after proceedings which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial." About 200 immigrants are still on death row in Libya.

Gaddafi; Tough on immigrants