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 Gaddafi loyalism, 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 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 Libya–Tunisia border, border 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 Turkey, Turks. By 1 March 2011, officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UN High Commissioner for Refugees 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 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 Refugee Camp, Choucha Camp to the Tunisian Red Crescent. 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 people, Berber Libyans fled their homes in Libya's Nafusa Mountains and took shelter in the Dehiba area of southeastern Tunisia between 5 and 12 April 2011. ''The Sunday Telegraph'' reported on 11 September that almost the entire population of Tawergha, a town of about 10,000 people, had been forced to flee their homes by anti-Gaddafi fighters after their Battle of Tawergha, takeover of the settlement. The report suggested that Tawergha, which was dominated by black Libyans, may have been the subject of an ethnic cleansing provoked by a combination of racism and bitterness on the part of Misratan fighters over the Tawergha's support for Gaddafi during the Battle of Misrata (2011), 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 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 with 31,750 of IDPs (7.6%), Bayda, Libya, 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. 435,000 Libyans have been forced to leave their homes, according to the World Food Programme. On 30 July 2014, Tunisian Foreign Minister Mongi Hamdi 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 living in Libya have also been made refugees due to the conflict, and in August 2014 Algeria 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 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) *Refugees of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, 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 Refugees of the Arab Winter, Libyan Civil War