Jul 24, 2024 11:55 AM IST
The reopening of the mission, which was maintained by skeletal staff that included a consular clerk, was announced during a news conference on Monday
India has reopened its embassy in Libya a little more than five years after it was closed because of the worsening security situation in the north African country, which continues to have about 3,000 Indian nationals.
The reopening of the mission, which was maintained by skeletal staff that included a consular clerk, was announced during a news conference on Monday by the foreign ministry under Libya’s National Unity Government based in Tripoli. India’s new chargé d’affaires for the mission, Mohammed Aleem, was present at the event.
Libya’s foreign ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page that the director of the department of Asia and Australia affairs, Nouri Fadel Al-Kaseh, met Aleem on Monday and discussed the resumption of work at the Indian embassy in Tripoli. Since the closure of the embassy in April 2019, the Indian envoy to Tunisia had been handling relations with Libya.
Among the activities that will be resumed at the Indian embassy are the granting of visas to Libyan citizens and checking the employment conditions for Indian expatriates, the statement said.
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“During the meeting, the two sides expressed the desire of Libya and India to activate friendly relations and cooperation in all spheres, which is an important step for both friendly countries,” the statement, issued in Arabic, said. The National Unity Government will continue its efforts for more countries to reopen their embassies in Libya.
Prior to the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, about 18,000 Indians worked in the country. Amid the fragile security situation in Libya in 2014, some 3,800 Indian nationals were repatriated, including six who had been kidnapped by the Islamic State.
The mission in Libya was temporarily relocated to Tunisia and then Malta, before it resumed its operations in Tripoli in 2012. The embassy was closed down in 2019 because of the worsening security situation, and it was maintained by a skeletal staff comprising a consular clerk and a gardener.
Despite the poor security situation in recent years, hundreds of Indians have made their way back to Libya through third countries in search of jobs. In September 2020, seven Indian workers were kidnapped while on their way from Benghazi to Tripoli. In February 2022, 27 Indian workers were evacuated from Benghazi in eastern Libya with the help of the International Organisation for Migration.
According to the external affairs ministry, there were about 3,000 Indians in Libya as of late 2022. Most of them are blue collar workers and the figures include a few professionals and Indians who have married Libyans and lived in the country for several years.
Libya continues to be divided between two administrations, one based in the east, and another in the western capital of Tripoli. The two sides signed a ceasefire in 2020 and the internationally recognised National Unity Government was formed in Tripoli in 2021. However, the Parliament based in the east formed a rival administration named the Government of National Stability in 2022.
