Libyan authorities recently ordered ten international aid organizations to suspend their operations and close offices in the country, accusing them of providing humanitarian assistance to help resettle African migrants in “a plot” to change the demographic composition of Libyan society.
The statement reflects similar incendiary comments from Tunisian President Kais Saied in 2023, echoing the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
Libya remains a key transit point for refugees and migrants attempting to reach Europe, with those intercepted in the Mediterranean often subjected to numerous human rights violations and abuses in Libyan detention centers.
Italy, under far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, has become a central enforcer of Europe’s increasingly securitized migration policies, prioritizing political gain over human rights concerns and signaling a broader European Union (EU) shift towards normalizing hardline approaches to migration.
Authorities in Libya recently ordered ten international aid organizations – including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council, among others – to suspend their operations and close offices in the North African country. The Tripoli-based Libyan Internal Security Agency (ISA), aligned with the UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNU) and has been accused of human rights violations in the past by Amnesty International, released a statement alleging that the humanitarian organizations violated local laws by providing various forms of humanitarian assistance to African migrants – particularly assistance that would help them resettle in Libya. The ISA also stated that “the project of settling illegal immigrants of African nationalities within the country represents a hostile activity targeting the Libyan demographics.” The ISA accused the organizations of money laundering because they avoided transparency in financial transfers for projects and currency exchanges.
The ISA statement reflects similar incendiary comments from Tunisian President Kais Saied in 2023, who claimed that irregular migration from other parts of Africa was part of an international criminal plot to permanently alter Tunisia’s demographic makeup. The accusations of such a plot echo the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which contends that whites are being actively “replaced” by non-white immigrants in a plot orchestrated by global elites and/or Jews. The conspiracy and other linked ideologies have underpinned far-right violent groups and attacks globally. Although often associated with far-right violent extremists in the West, including the attacks in Buffalo, Christchurch, El Paso, Pittsburgh, and Oslo and Utøya, such rhetoric and tropes have also been contextualized in the Global South, including in North Africa, South Asia, the Balkans, Türkiye, South Africa, and elsewhere. Such rhetoric has often led to backlash and discrimination against migrants, with xenophobic attacks escalating against sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia after President Saied’s comments in 2023. With the history of anti-immigrant tensions in Libya, such a backlash against sub-Saharan migrants and refugees may occur in the wake of the ISA’s accusations.
A spokesperson with the ISA, Salem Ghaith, accused the aid organizations of illegally providing aid, including cash vouchers, clothing, food, housing, and medical assistance, claiming they helped settle migrants who were initially just transiting through Libya en route to Europe. He alleged that these actions have turned Libya into a “destination country.” Although recently eclipsed by Tunisia, Libya was once the main transit point for migrants fleeing Africa to Europe and at one point, it had developed a detention economy where migrants were held captive. Still, approximately 71,500 migrants and refugees were known to attempt to cross the central Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe in 2023, with the country continuing to serve as a key departure country for migrants and refugees along the central Mediterranean route.
Although the accused aid groups have denied a “plot” to resettle migrants in Libya, these groups have provided assistance, as well as monitoring and protection for migrants and refugees in the country. According to reports by human rights groups and the UN, migrants have faced abuse, threats of torture, ill-treatment, and other human rights violations and abuses while in Libyan detention centers. When refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean are intercepted, they are often transferred back to Libya where they face dire conditions and human rights abuses in detention centers. Many of these centers are de facto controlled by armed groups that operate without any oversight and total impunity.
Following the 2011 collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, Libyan armed groups capitalized on the power vacuum to develop a lucrative conflict economy based on migrant smuggling and human trafficking networks – especially those involving individuals from conflict zones in sub-Saharan Africa. A study carried out by Chatham House estimates that smuggling generated approximately $978 million within Libya’s illicit sector in 2016. Human rights abuses have proliferated unabated, with reports of migrants being sold at slave markets, enduring horrendous conditions in detention centers, and facing widespread sexual abuse and exploitation.
European countries have forged partnerships with non-state armed groups, while smuggling has ultimately continued and has strengthened the position of Libyan militias in official regional economic and governance structures – all the while benefitting from European Union (EU) support. A pattern of transactional relationships underpinned by migration control has emerged within a broader trend of European states – including Germany, France, Spain and Italy – outsourcing migration management to transit countries. This security strategy of “border externalization” accelerated in the wake of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, which saw 1.3 million Syrian asylum seekers travel to Europe. Transit countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria have been offered political support and financial incentives to curb migrant flows toward Europe, turning them into frontline enforcers of European border policy. Effectively making transit countries – many of which are authoritarian regimes – into Europe’s border police, has given these countries considerable leverage over the European Union. Some analysts have suggested that Libya’s effort to expel the aid groups was a strategic move to assert its strength, as well as prevent the documentation of human rights abuses and circumvent subsequent accountability.
The EU has assigned approximately €57.2 million since 2017 for “Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya” according to Human Rights Watch. These funds have been allocated, in part, to the activities of EU agencies, such as Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency) and have provided North African states with surveillance tools, biometric data collection systems, and logistical support. The activities of this agency are not subject to approval by the European Commission or European Parliament, raising profound concerns over democratic accountability. This approach has facilitated authoritarian practices by equipping regimes with advanced repressive mechanisms and contributed to the fragmentation of the already unstable Maghreb region.
Italy, under far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has emerged as a player at the forefront of these efforts and has assumed a role as one of Europe’s de facto border enforcers in North Africa. In 2017, the controversial Memorandum of Understanding on Migration was signed between Libya and Italy, with a mandate to provide Libyan authorities with financial and operational support to tackle irregular migration. On April 2, Rome announced the allocation of €20 million to fund the “voluntary” repatriation of 3,300 sub-Saharan migrants in North Africa, coinciding with Libya’s recent decision to expel NGOs. This could be interpreted as a coordinated effort to curb migration under the guise of providing vulnerable migrants with autonomy and an attempt to deflect human rights abuse allegations faced by both countries.
Further, in 2022, the ICC determined that crimes perpetrated against migrants may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, with both Italy and Libya being implicated. Additionally, in 2025, Rome repatriated Libyan militia leader Ossama al-Masri sought by the ICC, which spotlighted the prioritization of migration control and protecting lucrative cross-Mediterranean links over adhering to international human rights norms.
Although refugee and migrant levels remain well under the 2015 peak, migration has remained a flashpoint in European politics, both at the country and EU level. Populist leaders in Europe have increasingly leveraged migration as a domestic political issue, exploiting anti-migrant sentiment for political gain and mainstreaming their stances and priorities. In Germany’s snap election of February 2025, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved unprecedented electoral successes, driven by a campaign focused on “remigration” – a policy calling for the mass deportation of immigrants. Notably, even centrist governments have begun adopting more hardline policies. The UK’s center-left Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Meloni in 2024, endorsing deeper cooperation and praising Italy’s securitized migration approach. This convergence signals a broader rightward shift in European migration policy and highlights that Meloni’s migration model may point to the normalization of security over humanitarian concerns in broader EU practice.