Libya’s Attorney General on Monday announced the arrest of an unnamed aviation executive for illegally transporting migrants from Libya to Nicaragua. The executive, business director for Libya’s Ghadames Air, was accused of committing activities that were “harmful to the interests” of the Libyan state.

An investigation revealed that planes from Libya’s Ghadames Air were illegally transporting hundreds of migrants from East Asia intending to enter the United States through Nicaragua. The Attorney General’s Office stated that Ghadames Air had failed to account for the air carrier obligations under both national immigration legislation and international treaties ratified by the Libyan Government.

In 2001 and 2004, Libya signed and ratified, respectively, the UN Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

Since the NATO intervention in Libya in 2011 and the death of the former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has been subject to human rights violations and immigration issues. According to Amnesty International, due to a”vicious cycle of cruelty,” Libyan refugees and migrants have risked their lives in the attempt to seek refuge in Europe.

Libya has been subject to ICC prosecutor’s investigations over possible war crimes committed by the Gaddafi government. In 2023, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan stated the office plans to complete all investigations into the war crimes by the end of 2025.

Ghadames Air was founded in 2021 as a private Libyan airline headquartered in Tripoli.