Refugees of the Libyan civil war

Libyan refugees

According to the International Organization for Migration, as of 14 June 2011:	346,113 in Sallum, Egypt; 543,003 in Ra's Ajdir, Tunisia; 30,825 in Faya and Kalait in Chad; at least 500 in Italy (by May 2011)
Regions with significant populations:	Tunisia, Egypt, Chad, Italy
Languages:	Arabic
Ethnicities:	Arabs, Berbers, Sub-Saharan Africans.
Religions:	Sunni Islam

Refugees of the Libyan civil war are the people, predominantly Libyans, who fled or were expelled from their homes during the Libyan civil war, from within the borders of Libya to the neighbouring states of Tunisia, Egypt and Chad, as well as to European countries across the Mediterranean. The majority of Libyan refugees are Arabs and Berbers, though many of the other ethnicities temporarily living in Libya originated from sub-Saharan Africa. These groups were also among the first refugee waves to exit the country. The total Libyan refugees' numbers were estimated at or near one million as of June 2011, though many have since returned and the estimation of those staying abroad was lowered to 50,000 on 1 October.

The exodus

Tunisia

Fleeing the violence of Tripoli by road, as many as 4,000 refugees were crossing the Libya–Tunisia border daily during the first days of the civil war. Among those escaping the violence were native Libyans as well as foreign nationals including Egyptians, Tunisians and Turks.

By 1 March, officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had confirmed allegations of discrimination against sub-Saharan Africans who were held in dangerous conditions in the no-man's-land between Tunisia and Libya. By 3 March, an estimated 200,000 refugees had fled Libya to either Tunisia or Egypt.^{[citation needed]}

A provisional refugee camp was set up at Ras Ajdir on the Libyan-Tunisian border and had a capacity for 10,000, but was overflowing with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 refugees. By 3 March, the situation there was described as a logistical nightmare, with the World Health Organization warning of the risk of epidemics.

To continue responding to the needs of people staying at the Ras Ajdir crossing point in Tunisia, the WFP and Secours Islamique-France upgraded a kitchen that would provide breakfast for families. Separately, the ICRC advised it was handing over its operations at the Choucha Camp to the Tunisian Red Crescent. Since 24 March, the WFP supplied over 42,500 cooked meals for TCNs at the Sallum border. A total of 1,650 cartons of fortified date bars (equivalent of 13.2 metric tons) had also been provided to supplement these meals.

Over 500 mostly ethnic Berber Libyans fled their homes in Libya's Nafusa Mountains and took shelter in the Dehiba area of southeastern Tunisia between 5 and 12 April.

Italy

Main article: Lampedusa immigrant reception center

In February, Italian Foreign Minister Frattini expressed his concerns that the amount of Libyan refugees trying to reach Italy might reach between 200,000 and 300,000 people.

Following the 2011 revolution in Tunisia and the civil war in Libya, the Italian island of Lampedusa saw a boom in illegal immigration from those countries. More than 45,000 boat people arrived on Lampedusa in the first five months of 2011.

Internal displacement

Further information: Humanitarian situation during the 2011 Libyan civil war

The Sunday Telegraph reported on 11 September that almost the entire population of Tawergha, a town of about 10,000 people, had been forced to flee their homes by anti-Gaddafi fighters after their takeover of the settlement. The report suggested that Tawergha, which was dominated by black Libyans, may have been the subject of an ethnic cleansing provoked by a combination of racism and bitterness on the part of Misratan fighters over the Tawergha's support for Gaddafi during the siege of Misrata.

Refugee Numbers

On May 10, The Week posted an article claiming that roughly 746,000 people have fled Libya since the war began. Since the early displacement many of the refugees returned to Libya of their own will. On 1 October, Red Cross official Abdelhamid al-Mendi said that more than 50,000 Libyans had fled their homes in Benghazi since the war began in February.

See also

• Refugees of the 2011 Syrian uprising
• Sahrawi refugee camps