Libyan authorities accused them of plotting aid groups to change the nation’s ethnic composition by encouraging African migrants to stay there, and ordered them to close their offices.
Ten groups were selected, including doctors without borders, the UN Refugee Agency and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“This plan to resolve our country’s African origin immigration represents hostile conduct, which aims to change the country’s demographic composition and threaten the balance of Libyan society,” said Salem Gheit, a spokesman for the Internal Security Agency, on Thursday.
It reflects a similar announcement made by Tunisia two years ago, which was quickly accused of anti-black racism.
Both countries sit on the Mediterranean coast and are important transport points for African immigrants crossing the sea into Europe.
Since the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gadafi in 2011, the government has collapsed, allowing armed militia and people’s traffic to multiply.
The country is divided into two parts, each run by rival governments.
Militias have been accused of running detention centres where migrants are dead or starving, and Libyan coast guards have been accused of filming people at sea rather than rescue them. Libyan authorities have not commented on these charges.
The order on Thursday to expel aid groups was made by an internationally recognized government based in the capital, Tripoli.
The Borderless Doctor (MSF) stopped working in Libya a week ago, explaining a campaign by Libyan authorities since mid-March to “supposing and interrogating staff from international NGOs.”
“Our organizations are extremely concerned about the consequences of these orders on patient health and the safety of humanitarian workers,” MSF said in a statement sent to the BBC.
In response to a announcement on Thursday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) defended the work, informing the BBC that the people it helps are not “immigrants,” but refugees of disastrous needs.
It also states that it is run with the consent of the government of Tripoli.
“We are in touch with Libyan authorities and are in touch with them to make it clear. UNHCR has been active in Libya for over 30 years and provides humanitarian assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable Libyan communities,” spokesman William Spindler told the BBC.
The International Security Agency reportedly did to Libyan 10 aid groups, “to support illegal immigrants by providing food, clothing and medicine, and these migrants encouraged Libya to be considered as a final destination rather than a transport country.” But many say they don’t want to stay in the country.
For years, immigrants in sub-Saharan Africa have been exposed to serious rights violations and inhuman treatment in Libya – being killed, enslaved and repeatedly raped.
“He called me ‘nasty black’. He raped me and said, ‘This is what a woman was made of,'” Sudanese refugee, trafficked in Libya, told the BBC this year about a man who offered her a job cleaning her home.
“Even the kids here are mean to us, and they treat us as beasts and magicians. They shame us for being black and African, aren’t they Africans?”
