Migrants and Policies of Containment: Libya’s Case in the Wake of Qaddafi’s Fall

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, Libya has experienced a phase of rapid economic growth and gradually become a preferred destination for significant international migration flows from other Arab countries, various sub-Saharan African countries, and even Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, and China. Contrary to the perception of Libya as a transit country, many migrants actually stay in the country. Over the past three decades, Libyan territory has served as a true laboratory for experimenting migration policies between Libya and European countries, especially Italy. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, Libya was characterized by two opposing trends: on one hand, Qaddafi’s policies aimed at importing cheap labour from sub-Saharan Africa and Arab countries, and on the other, containment policies implemented by Italy to halt irregular migration flows across the Mediterranean, which were relatively small compared to the total number of migrants in Libya. This article aims to analyse the genesis and development of immigration containment policies, focusing especially on the relations between Italy and Libya. It examines their medium-term effects and discusses how these policies have not only undermined the rights of migrant individuals, but also served as a premise for their economic exploitation and social marginalization in both Libya and Italy.