On 8 June, Egyptian independent media outlet Mada Masr published a report by Hazem Tharwat on the recent mass deportation campaign in eastern Libya, where thousands of Egyptian migrants were reportedly forced to walk to the Egyptian border. Citing several political and security sources from both Egypt and Libya, Tharwat argues that cash-strapped Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar and his sons are using this campaign to ‘extract money and support from European partners and settle political scores in a shifting domestic political scene’. He explains that this ‘migrant tragedy’ is driven by the Haftar’s seeking greater control in the East and alternative sources of cash through migration management deals with foreign countries, especially in light of Haftar’s recent visit to Rome, where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other officials, who discussed with him the unprecedented increase in migrant arrivals on Italian shores from eastern Libya.
Read the full article here.