Libyan authorities have made a significant arrest in their ongoing efforts to combat illegal migration. The commercial director of Ghadames Airlines, a private company, was taken into custody for allegedly smuggling migrants to the United States via Nicaragua. This arrest came just before Libya hosted the Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum on July 17, attended by African and European leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
According to the Libyan prosecutor’s office, the airline director facilitated the travel of hundreds of people seeking to enter the United States through Nicaragua, violating migration regulations. The smuggling operation reportedly operated from airports in Tripoli and Benghazi.
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, Libya has become a major transit point for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea. The country, now divided between rival Eastern and Western authorities, is seeking more partners to help curb these migration flows. Libyan Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi recently estimated that 2.5 million foreigners reside in Libya, with 70 to 80% entering illegally.
While NGOs like Doctors Without Borders highlight the harsh conditions faced by migrants in Libya, including kidnapping, arbitrary detention, and torture, Tripoli emphasizes ongoing evacuation processes in partnership with the International Organization for Migration. Since the beginning of the year, 6,000 undocumented migrants have been repatriated, compared to 10,000 last year.
As Mediterranean routes become increasingly blocked, smuggling networks in Libya have started offering longer-distance destinations. Ghadames Airlines, which is banned from European Union airspace due to safety concerns, allegedly facilitated transcontinental migrations. Migrants from East Asia would reportedly transit through Managua, Nicaragua, before embarking on a long overland journey north to the United States.
In early June, three flights carrying 300 to 400 passengers each were organized in less than a month, despite warnings from Washington. In 2023, nearly 60,000 Africans attempted to reach the United States via Nicaragua’s relaxed visa regime, three times more than the previous year.
Migration has often been used as a tool for political destabilization linked to Libya. Last year, Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants arrived via an air bridge between Syria’s capital, Damascus, and the Libyan city of Benghazi, operated by Cham Wings under Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. Cham Wings had previously been involved in pressuring Poland and Lithuania through Belarusian migration routes, leading to EU sanctions that were later lifted in July 2022.
This latest arrest highlights the complex and evolving nature of global migration patterns and the challenges faced by countries like Libya in managing these flows. As authorities continue to grapple with this issue, the international community watches closely to see how strategies to combat illegal migration and human smuggling will develop in the region.