Libya is investigating claims that African migrants are being sold as slaves, the country's representative in Malta said on Thursday as he called on the international community not to turn the issue into a political ball.
Libya should not be used as a scapegoat in the issue of migration and the North African country was not one to receive lessons on morality and humanity, charge d’affaires Elhabib Alamin told the media.
What Libya needed, he said, was support to its security and judicial institutions, which would allow it to prevent criminal gangs from practicing any illegal activities on its soil.
The head of the Libyan Mission in Malta went to lengths to explain the deep historical and cultural ties between Libyans and their “African brothers”.
"Libyans are Africans, and Africans lead a normal life among Libyans," he noted, adding that at one point, there were more than two million African workers in Libya. The country had also invested more than $10 billion in African countries over the years.
Mr Alamin denounced any form of insult or inhumane treatment, slavery or otherwise, on Africans or people of any nationality.
The conference was held to clarify the situation in Libya “amid a media and political campaign against it with unfounded accusations of alleged slavery after the CNN report on the subject and subsequent statements”.
Mr Alamin said that following the CNN report, African countries such as Ghana and Niger had officially denied that their nationals had experienced slavery in Libya.
It was also common practice, he noted, that governments issue warnings to their citizens to avoid travelling to high risk countries, and it was known that Libya was not currently safe for foreigners. Still, no African country had issued such a warning to its citizens.
The Government of National Accord called on all media outlets to verify any information they received about Libya and to not be deceived into reporting misleading information.
Mr Alamin warned against the dissemination of “fabricated footage” and when questioned by the Times of Malta, he said he was not referring to the CNN footage.
The local representation raised concern about the real motives of the campaign against Libya by countries that refused to receive migrants and did not participate in bearing the costs of ending this phenomenon.
Libya has often called on the international community to help bear the costs of shelter for migrants and their repatriation. Although Libya still faced severe economic, political and security difficulties, it was bearing the heaviest burden of saving migrants, sheltering and covering their basic needs, Mr Alamin said.
Libya, he added, was a transit country for people whose misery started elsewhere and wanted to go to Europe. Human trafficking networks were internationally controlled, with connections in source, transit and destination countries, and extended way beyond Libyan territory.