US Judge Blocks plans to deport migrants to Libya

An American judge in Boston ordered a temporary block on the Trump government plan to deport migrants to Libya, and said that it would “clearly violate” an earlier order that he has given that their right to an appropriate process takes care of.

The order came after two American officials had told BBC partner CBS News that the US could soon deport migrants to Libya as part of the action against immigration.

In response to the report of deportations, the Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh wrote in a statement about X that refused to “be a destination for the deportation of migrants under any pretext.”

In response to the same report, a spokesperson for the US Department of Foreign Affairs said that they would not discuss the case.

The officials who spoke with CBS – who asked for anonymity – said that the US Army could fly migrants to the North African country in this week.

The move is likely to cause controversy – Libya has been entangled in conflict for more than a decade and the US Department of Foreign Affairs does not advise Americans to travel there because of factors such as crime, terrorism and civil unrest.

Immigration lawyers quickly moved on Wednesday to prevent the Trump government from carrying out the deportations and a Massachusetts judge asked to “urgently” issue a temporary block.

“Several credible sources report that flights are preparing to immediately leave the United States with the United States for removal to Libya,” the lawyers in their court requests requested

Judge Brian Murphy in the American district in Boston responded late on Wednesday afternoon by ordering an order that the capacity of the Trump government is limited to quickly deport the migrants.

In his ruling, Judge Murphy said that the deportations “flagrant” will defy an order that he had previously given that the appropriate procedural rights of migrants are subject to definitive deportation orders.

That earlier statement requires that civil servants offer migrants a written notification in their language and a meaningful opportunity to submit a claim to protect them against removal.

When asked if he was aware of the plan to deport migrants to Libya, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday: “I don’t know. You have to ask the Homeland Security.”

Libya is considered one of the different countries asked to accept migrant deposits by the Trump government.

This week Rwanda confirmed that it was at the “early stage” of conversations with the USWhile Benin, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Moldova are all mentioned in media reports.

It is not clear how many people hope to deport the US to Libya, or to which part of Libya the migrants would be sent.

Since the overthrow of the former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country has been divided into two – the West is ruled by a government supported by the UN, of which Dbeibeh is prime minister, while military strong man Gen Khalifa Haftar controls the East.

The son of Haftar met the American officials in Washington last Monday, but the US Department of Foreign Affairs and a Libyan spokesperson said the meeting was not about deportations.

Since he returned to the office in January, President Trump has launched a massive deportation campaign – sometimes depending on controversial tactics such as the call of an age -old law on wartime.

Earlier this week, the government Migrants offered illegally in the US an amount of $ 1,000 (£ 751) to leave the country.