The U.S. is planning to send a group of undocumented immigrants to Libya as early as this week, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the flight said.
A U.S. military aircraft is expected to transport the migrants. A State Department spokesperson said that the agency does not discuss the “details of our diplomatic communications with other governments.” The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on anything related to Libyan deportations.
Libya’s Government of National Unity, the country’s provisional government, said in a post on social media that it is not coordinating deportations with the U.S. and that it rejects the use of the country as a destination for deported immigrants without its knowledge or consent.
“The Government categorically denies the existence of any agreement or coordination with it regarding the reception of any migrants deported from the United States,” Libya’s Government of National Unity said in a post.
It also suggested that “some parallel parties that are not subject to legitimacy” could be involved with the developments.
Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, said in a statement that it also rejects the idea of the country taking in deported migrants, as that would violate “the sovereignty of the homeland.”
The news comes after the Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month during a Cabinet meeting that the U.S. is “actively searching for other countries to take people.”
“We are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries,’” Rubio said. “‘Will you do that as a favor to us?’ And the further away the better, so they can’t come back across the border.”
The U.S. has agreements in place with several Central American countries to take in its deportees. Earlier this year, the Trump administration struck a $6 million deal with El Salvador to imprison deportees it says are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the street gang MS-13.
The administration has labeled both gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. Other countries, like Costa Rica have also agreed to serve as a bridge between the U.S. and the migrants, many of whom have no criminal records.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said at a news conference in February that the country is helping its “economically powerful brother from the north.”
“If they impose a tax in our free zones, it’ll screw us,” Chaves said. “Two-hundred will come, we treat them well and they will leave.”
