Authorities in eastern Libya refused entry to three European ministers and the EU commissioner for migration on alleged entry violations, apparently after they stopped first in the rival Libyan capital of Tripoli in the west.
A statement from the prime minister of the eastern part of Libya, Osama Hammad, said the interior ministers of Italy, Greece, Malta and the EU migration commissioner, Magnus Brunner, were “persona non-grata” after they were denied entry shortly after their arrival in Benghazi. It said the ministers had entered illegally and had not followed Libyan diplomatic conventions.
