Libya’s fuel crisis redirects public anger toward migrants

While authorities closed more than 500 non-compliant petrol stations and investigated the diversion of subsidised fuel, protesters gathered outside the main UNHCR office in Tripoli demanding that migrants and refugees leave the country, as reported by Libya Gazette on June 8th.

Delivery trucks and petrol stations were openly accused of diverting allocations to illegal depots and smugglers, showing that the crisis is caused primarily by weak control, further exacerbated by its fragmented enforcement and the power of networks profiting from subsidised resources.

Migrants were blamed for creating Libya’s fuel smuggling economy as their visibility made them an easy target compared to the actors actually benefiting from scarcity.

Libya Gazette