Libyan view on status of refugees is different: EU envoy

(TRIPOLI) - Libya's view on the status of refugees is different from that accepted internationally, the EU ambassador said on Wednesday after a Libyan decision to close the UNHCR office in Tripoli.

"Libya has a different view on the status of refugees," Adrianus Koetsenruijter, also EU ambassador to Tunis, where he is based, told AFP.

Tripoli "has a problem with the status of this organisation (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees), as well as with the concept of what a refugee is, as defined at an international level," he said.

Koetsenruijter was speaking on the sidelines of a seventh round of delicate negotiations between Libya and the European Union on a partnership accord.

"We regret the departure of the UNHCR, as we believe its office has undertaken important work in this country," the EU envoy said.

A UNHCR spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Tripoli had ordered the agency to close its Libya office and leave the country.

"We have not been given any reason by Libyan authorities for why we should leave the country," Melissa Fleming told journalists. They gave notice on June 2 but no deadline was set, she added.

Libya said it had ordered the closure because Tripoli was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention on refugees and therefore it did not recognise the UN agency's office in its capital.

On Wednesday, Koetsenruijter said the United Nations would have to solve the problem.

"Libya says it has no official relations with this office. And that puts us in a mess that will have to be sorted out by the United Nations," he said. "The problem of refugees will not be solved in this manner.

"It's not easy. But we are trying to agree in principle (with Tripoli) that those people who come from other countries are treated well" in Libya.

The North African state is a hub for refugees from sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Middle East seeking to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Last year, Italy and Libya reached an agreement that allows the Italian navy to intercept illegal migrants at sea and return them to Libya, triggering sharp criticism from the UNHCR and human rights groups.