Judge blocks deportation flight of Asian migrants to Libya

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A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing migrants from being sent to Libya or any other third country after immigration attorneys filed an emergency motion Wednesday.

The United States reportedly plans to send a group of migrants to Libya as early as this week.

A U.S. military aircraft is expected to transport the migrants who are from the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos, among other countries, the motion said.

The plaintiffs are being set for removal “without any reasonable fear screening, let alone a fifteen-day window to file a motion to reopen with the immigration court to contest any negative reasonable fear determination,” according to the motion, which was filed in U.S District Court in Massachusetts.

In one case, the attorneys said in the motion, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at a South Texas detention facility gathered several detainees in a room. The detainees were told that they needed to sign a document agreeing to be deported to Libya, the document said. When they refused, they were put in separate rooms, “cuffed in,” and forced to sign the document, the motion says.

Libya’s provisional Government of National Unity said on social media that it is not coordinating deportations with the United States and that it rejects using the country as a destination for deported immigrants without its knowledge or consent.

“The Government categorically denies the existence of any agreement or coordination with it regarding the reception of any migrants deported from the United States,” it said.

It also suggested that “some parallel parties that are not subject to legitimacy” could be involved with the developments.

Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, said in a statement that it also opposed the country‘s taking in deported migrants because it would violate “the sovereignty of the homeland.”