Reintegrating fighters and denying settlement plans
LIBYA – Labour and Rehabilitation Minister in the Dbeibah government, Ali Al-Abed, confirmed that steps he described as “important have been taken to rehabilitate and integrate members of armed groups into civilian jobs, while denying any plans to settle irregular migrants or Palestinians.
From care for fighters to civilian rehabilitation
In remarks exclusively to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the 52nd session of the Arab Labour Conference in Cairo, Al-Abed said the programme to rehabilitate and integrate armed elements was not new. It began with the establishment of the Fighters Affairs Authority in late 2011 to care for and rehabilitate revolutionaries and former fighters and integrate them into society, later becoming the Libyan Programme for Development and Reintegration, before changing under the Government of National Unity into the National Project for Rehabilitation and Reintegration.
He acknowledged that the projects biggest challenge is the need for a unified state and the unification of Libyan institutions.
Al-Abed said the handling of fighters after 2011 had taken the wrong path: Integrating armed groups after 2011 was done the wrong way, by integrating them and regularising their status only in the defence and interior ministries, even though among them were engineers, doctors, farmers and traders. They had to be rehabilitated and integrated into civilian life.
Psychological rehabilitation and reintegration experiences
He said ministry delegations had studied the experiences of countries that had gone through civil wars, armed groups and the chaotic spread of weapons, such as Colombia, Rwanda and Kosovo, noting that Rwanda’s experience had drawn particular interest on the Libyan side.
We found Rwandas experience distinctive, and it made broad progress on reintegration, unlike other experiences, because it was based on psychological rehabilitation by isolating fighters in camps and working on their psychological rehabilitation, and they also relied on religious incentives, Al-Abed said.
He described the project as very important and even as one of the greatest projects in Libya, saying its success depends on the state’s ability to monopolise weapons and create the conditions needed to hold elections.
Without this project there will be no elections in Libya. It is based on putting all weapons under the legitimacy of the state, and rehabilitating and integrating fighters into civilian life across all fields, whether education or health, he added.
He said the programme had shown a measure of success with some fighters: We have run rehabilitation courses, and some fighters now have industrial and commercial activity. We have already started the programme, but it needs psychological sessions and psychiatrists to rehabilitate fighters psychologically.
He added that the project had also targeted the families of former fighters.
He acknowledged that the project had stalled at some stages because of the security tensions the country had gone through, while stressing that it had achieved tangible successful indicators and results, and that the administration was working quietly and away from political point-scoring.
He stressed that successive governments bet must be on disarmament and the rehabilitation and integration of fighters, not the reverse.
Dbeibah government and settlement
Al-Abed again denied that his government had any plans to settle irregular migrants, saying: Talk of that is baseless and not on the table,” and stressing that Libyan laws and legislation prohibit the settlement of migrants, according to him.
He noted that Libya is not a member of the UN refugee agency and is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, adding that it is a transit country for migrants, whether they work legally in the country or are in an irregular migration situation.
He also denied talk of plans to settle Palestinians, saying claims circulating among activists about such plans were baseless and had previously been denied by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.
These allegations are promoted by pages on social media without real evidence, and with forged papers that may involve artificial intelligence tools, he added.
Foreign labour
On regulating foreign labour, Al-Abed said there is no reliable database of the numbers of irregular migrants because of the political division the country is going through. He pointed to the Wafid platform, which he said offers a solution to the crisis by having the worker or employer register data and obtain a work permit, with an electronic card also due to be launched.
He concluded that the government is moving ahead with applying a sponsor system through labour-service companies to register expatriate workers, rejecting criticism directed at him.
He said the sponsor is the employer, who will guarantee the worker’s rights to salary and health insurance before the official authorities, and will help control and register labour numbers and curb irregular migration.
Jerusalem visit and pledge on Palestinian workers
Labour Minister Ali Al-Abed in the Dbeibah government visited Jerusalem in February 2023, where he took commemorative photos at Al-Aqsa Mosque after meetings with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to activate an agreement to bring 10,000 Palestinians to Libya to work and live.
