The agencies concerned with irregular migration and the security authorities in Libya confronted attempts to sail covertly across the Mediterranean Sea, in parallel with the intensification of air deportations of dozens of migrants towards their countries, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration, amid increasing human rights calls to address the urgent humanitarian conditions of detainees in the east of the country.
The security authorities affiliated with the Anti-Illegal Immigration Service in the city of Sirte (450 kilometers east of Tripoli) aborted a new attempt to smuggle a group of irregular immigrants towards European shores. Field patrols in the “20” area east of the city were able to monitor and destroy supplies and equipment prepared by the smugglers for sailing, including the boat designated for transporting them across the Mediterranean, while the security services continued to comb the coastal strip to protect it and prevent criminal networks from exploiting it.
In the process of organizing return and deportation, the competent agencies in Tripoli, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration and diplomatic missions, completed the air return procedures for 151 migrants belonging to 5 nationalities through Mitiga International Airport.
Data from the East Tripoli Shelter Center reported that the deportation batch included 74 immigrants from Mali, 36 from Bangladesh, 32 from Pakistan, 8 from Burkina Faso, and one immigrant from Algeria.
In conjunction with this, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria conducted a field visit to the center to complete interviews and document its nationals in preparation for their deportation.
The center added that its president, Major General Nour al-Din al-Quraytli, received on Tuesday the Consul General of the Yemeni Embassy in Libya, Abdul Karim al-Shassani. This is to deliver and complete the procedures for Yemeni immigrants who are residents of the center, in preparation for their deportation to their country in accordance with the established procedures.
In continuation of the deportation operations of immigrants, the shelter center revealed that this morning, 33 illegal immigrants of Pakistani nationality were deported, who were among the center’s residents, and their deportation process was carried out in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration through Mitiga International Airport.
On the other hand, urgent human rights and humanitarian demands directed at the Libyan authorities in Benghazi are escalating as quickly as they resolved the file of 13 Algerian citizens, including an elderly woman, who have been detained in the Ganfouda shelter center for more than a year against the backdrop of an irregular migration attempt.
Human rights activists, including Libyan Tariq Lamloum, warned of “the deteriorating health condition of detainees and the spread of skin diseases under harsh shelter conditions,” calling on diplomatic missions and concerned authorities to expedite the issuance of travel documents and facilitate safe return.
Today (Tuesday), a court in the Algerian capital brought down the curtain on the “corruption in football” file, issuing heavy prison sentences against a number of former officials in the Algerian Football Federation. The penalties ranged - according to journalists who attended the sentencing session - from one year to eight years in prison, and included in particular former presidents of the federation, along with a number of members of its former leadership structures.
Among the most severe sentences issued was an 8-year prison sentence against Khair al-Din Zatshi and Sharaf al-Din Amara, while Jahid Zvizif was sentenced to 6 years in prison. The three headed the Football Association between the years 2017 and 2023.
The Sidi M'hamed Court, which specializes in crimes of financial corruption, also decided the fate of the rest of the accused. Where: Mohamed Saad and Mounir Dabaishi, the two former Secretaries-General of the Federation, Abdel-Ghani Naqash, the former official of administration and financial affairs at the Federation, and Amin Abdi, the director of the football team, were sentenced to 3 years in prison with execution. As for Abdel Moumen Barraf, former assistant director general of the federation, he was sentenced to two years in prison.
The rulings also included: Ammar Bahloul, Abdullah Qaddah, Al-Arabi Oumammar, and Muhammad Al-Hashimi, who are former members of the Federation’s executive office. The trial convicted them of one year imprisonment for each of them.
These are very severe rulings - according to the defense - but they do not necessarily mean a final end to this file from a judicial perspective, according to statements by the defendants’ lawyers. They have the right to appeal the rulings issued against them.
An amendment to the file on the management of “corruption funds” in Algeria: The government is moving to transfer the powers to supervise the management of funds and property frozen, seized, or confiscated in the context of anti-corruption cases, from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Justice.
The issues of support, the unified salary scale, and controlling public spending are the top concerns of Libyan circles, in conjunction with the decline in the value of the dinar against the dollar, and the increasing living pressures it imposes on citizens. This comes at a time when teachers continue their strike, insisting on implementing “their full demands.”
