Migrants causing ‘economic chaos’ as refugees transfer £5 billion overseas | World | News
Migrants are transferring as much as £5bn abroad, according to a senior government minister in Libya. The official added that money transfers cause serious damage to the national economy and drain the government’s finances.
Libya claims that approximately three million illegal immigrants live on its territory. The country signed an agreement with the EU to manage migration to the continent in a bid to stop the influx of refugees from Africa. Brussels provided approximately €465 million in funding to Libya between 2015 and 2021 to act as an immigration enforcer.
The EU has also allocated a further €65 million for “protection and border management” between 2021 and 2027, according to AFP.
However, this situation led to many immigrants settling in the region under the control of the National Unity Government. The country plans to increase the number of repatriates in the coming weeks and months, Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi told reporters on Tuesday.
He claimed that immigrants were damaging the local economy by sending billions of liras abroad.
“Our estimates are that immigrants send $600 million to their families every month, which is over $7 billion a year.”
“And this money goes to the black market, which harms the national economy as oil revenues and the reserves of the Central Bank of Libya are thought to be consumed.”
Even though it took millions Minister calls on euro aid from Brussels and calls on EU to provide more aid.
It turned out that Trabelsi was a controversial appointment, having been chosen for the post by Libyan prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in November 2023.
He was arrested in March 2023 after being caught “carrying a large amount of cash” at Charles de Gaul Airport in Paris, and was released a few hours later.
Moreover, he is accused of violating human rights by his critics.
Ahmed Hamza, head of the National Human Rights Commission in Libya, called Trabelsi “one of the most significant violators of human rights and international humanitarian law in Libya.”
