Libyan Refugees
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Libyan refugees are people who fled or were expelled from their homes since the beginning of the
Libyan Crisis Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. All figures are from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks ...
in 2011, including during the
First Libyan Civil War The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were ...
, that deposed
Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...
in 2011, and the
Second Libyan Civil War The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
(2014–2020). Many people have been displaced from
Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
to neighbouring
Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and
Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...
, as well as to European countries across the Mediterranean. The majority of refugees from Libya are
Arabs Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
, though many others are
sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...
n migrants who were living in Libya. These groups were also among the first refugee waves to exit the country. The total number of Libyan refugees was estimated at around 1 million in June 2011, with most returning to Libya after the First Civil War ended. In January 2013, there were 5,252 refugees originating from Libya alongside 59,425
internally displaced persons An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced displacement, forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the Refugee#Definitions ...
registered by the UNHCR. According to a May 2014 ''
Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'' article, there were between 600,000 and 1,000,000 Libyan refugees in Tunisia, many of which were political opponents of Libya's post Gaddafi government, including many supporters of Gaddafi. This represented between 10 and 15% of the Libya's pre-2011 Civil War population. In August 2014, Tunisian President
Moncef Marzouki Mohamed Moncef Marzouki (; ''Muhammad al-Munṣif al-Marzūqī'', born 7 July 1945) is a Tunisian politician who served as the third president of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014. Through his career he has been a human rights activist, physician and pol ...
stated that two million Libyans, or one third of the pre-2011 population had taken refuge in Tunisia.


History


Exodus caused by the First Libyan Civil War (2011)

Fleeing the violence of Tripoli by road, as many as 4,000 refugees were crossing the Libya–Tunisia
border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...
daily during the first days of the 2011 civil war. Among those escaping the violence were native Libyans as well as foreign nationals including
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
ians,
Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
ns and
Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...
. By 1 March 2011, officials from the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, l ...
had confirmed allegations of discrimination against sub-Saharan Africans who were held in dangerous conditions in the no-man's-land between Tunisia and Libya. On 10 May 2011, The Week posted an article claiming that roughly 746,000 people have fled Libya since the war began. A provisional refugee camp was set up at Ras Ajdir on the Libyan-Tunisian border and had a capacity for 10,000, but was overflowing with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 refugees. By 3 March 2011, the situation there was described as a logistical nightmare, with the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
warning of the risk of epidemics. To continue responding to the needs of people staying at the Ras Ajdir crossing point in Tunisia, the WFP and Secours Islamique-France upgraded a kitchen that would provide breakfast for families. Separately, the ICRC advised it was handing over its operations at the
Choucha Camp Choucha is a refugee camp in the south of Tunisia, in the Medenine Governorate, Medinine Governorate. The camp is located within 10 kilometers of the border crossing Ras Ajdir with Libya. The camp was opened on the 24th of February, 2011 and run ...
to the
Tunisian Red Crescent The Tunisian Red Crescent (Arabic: الهلال الأحمر التونسي) is a Tunisian humanitarian association founded in 1956, after the independence of the country. It is one of the national affiliates of the International Movement of the Re ...
. Since 24 March 2011, the WFP supplied over 42,500 cooked meals for TCNs at the Sallum border. A total of 1,650 cartons of fortified date bars (equivalent of 13.2 metric tons) had also been provided to supplement these meals. Over 500 mostly
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
Libyans fled their homes in Libya's
Nafusa Mountains The Nafusa Mountains () () is a mountain range in the western Tripolitania region of northwestern Libya. It also includes the regions around the escarpment formed where the northern end of the Tripolitanian Plateau meets the Mediterranean coasta ...
and took shelter in the
Dehiba Dehiba ( ') is a town and commune in the east of Tataouine Governorate, Tunisia. It lies some four kilometers west of the border of Libya, itself about the same distance east from the Libyan town of Wazzin. During the 2011 Libyan civil war, the ...
area of southeastern Tunisia between 5 and 12 April 2011. ''
The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...
'' reported on 11 September that almost the entire population of
Tawergha Tawergha (Berber: ⵜⴰⵡⴻⵔⵖⴰ, ), also transliterated ''Tawargha'', ''Tawarga'', ''Tauorga'', ''Taworgha'', ''Tawurgha'' or ''Torghae'', is, as of May 2021,Murray, Rebecca"One Year Later, Still Suffering for Loyalty to Gaddafi" ''Inter ...
, a town of about 10,000 people, had been forced to flee their homes by anti-Gaddafi fighters after their takeover of the settlement. The report suggested that Tawergha, which was dominated by black Libyans, may have been the subject of an
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
provoked by a combination of
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
and bitterness on the part of
Misrata Misrata ( ; , Libyan Arabic: ; also spelled Misratah and known by the Italian spelling Misurata) is a city in northwestern Libya located in the Misrata District, situated to the east of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. ...
n fighters over the Tawergha's support for Gaddafi during the siege of Misrata. On 1 October 2011, Red Cross official Abdelhamid al-Mendi said that more than 50,000 Libyans had fled their homes in Benghazi since the war began in February.


After the First Libyan Civil War

As of January 2013, there were 5,252 refugees originating from Libya alongside 59,425
internally displaced persons An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced displacement, forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the Refugee#Definitions ...
. However the Le Monde article of 14 May 2014 stated that "Estimates of their numbers vary between 600,000 and one million by the Tunisian Ministry of Interior. If we add those, many also settled in Egypt, they would be nearly two million Libyans today outside the borders of a total population estimated at just over six million inhabitants."
Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...
is the area that hosts the largest share of identified IDPs, with 115,000 IDPs residing there, which as a group account for (27.6%) of all IDPs in Libya. It is followed by
Ajdabiya Ajdabiya ( ; ) is a town in and capital of the Al Wahat District in northeastern Libya. It is some south of Benghazi. From 2001 to 2007 it was part of and capital of the Ajdabiya District. The town is divided into three Basic People's Congres ...
with 31,750 of IDPs (7.6%), Bayda with 21,500 IDPs (5.2%), Abu Salim with 21,475 IDPs (5.1%), Bani Waled with 20,000 IDPs (4.8%), Alzintan with 19,425 IDPs (4.7%), Tobruk with 16,375 (3.9%), Al Ajaylat with 13,500 IDPs (3.2%), Janzour with 10,105 IDP (2.4%), Sabha with 7,215 (1.7%), and Tarhuna with 7,150 IDPs (1.7%). Combined, these 10 locations account for 67.9% of the total identified IDP population. The 31 areas shown in the table below jointly host 87.1 % of the total identified IDP population.


Refugees of the Second Libyan Civil War (2014–2020)

Some sources estimate that nearly a third of Libya's population, some two million Libyans, has fled to
Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
as refugees during the
Second Libyan Civil War The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
, including Tunisian President
Moncef Marzouki Mohamed Moncef Marzouki (; ''Muhammad al-Munṣif al-Marzūqī'', born 7 July 1945) is a Tunisian politician who served as the third president of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014. Through his career he has been a human rights activist, physician and pol ...
. 435,000 Libyans have been forced to leave their homes, according to the
World Food Programme The World Food Programme (WFP) is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and the leading provider of school meals. Founded in 1961 ...
. On 30 July 2014, Tunisian Foreign Minister
Mongi Hamdi Mongi Hamdi (; born 23 April 1959) is a Tunisian politician and United Nations official. He served from 29 January 2014 until his appointment as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Missi ...
said that the country cannot cope with the high number of refugees arriving from Libya due to the renewed civil war. He stated "Our country's economic situation is precarious, and we cannot cope with hundreds of thousands of refugees," and added that Tunisia will close its borders if necessary. Many of the
Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...
living in Libya have also been made refugees due to the conflict, and in August 2014
Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
opened their border and offered special visas to fleeing Egyptians, allowing them to return to
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
through the country.


Immigration to Europe

Following the 2011 revolution in Tunisia and the civil war in Libya, in February, Italian Foreign Minister Frattini expressed his concerns that the amount of Libyan refugees trying to reach Italy might reach between 200,000 and 300,000 people. More than 45,000
refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
arrived on Lampedusa in the first five months of 2011.


See also

* Displacement during the Israel–Hezbollah conflict * Humanitarian situation during the Libyan civil war (2011) * Lebanese displacement during the Israel–Hezbollah conflict * Refugees of Iraq


References

{{European migrant crisis Libyan Crisis (2011–present) Libyan diaspora Forced migration Demographics of Libya Migrants of the European migrant crisis
Libyan Civil War Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. All figures are from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks ...