Libya’s rival governments both denied on Wednesday that they had agreed to receive deported immigrants from the United States, saying this would violate the North African nation’s sovereignty.
U.S. officials said on Tuesday that the Trump administration was planning to transfer migrants on a U.S. military plane to Libya, which has been divided for years between two hostile administrations. They said the flight could leave as soon as Wednesday.
The denials were issued by both the internationally recognized government in the capital, Tripoli, which controls western Libya, and by the authorities in eastern Libya, under the control of the warlord Khalifa Hifter.