AfricaNews editorial desk
Libyan authorities have ordered the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR to shut down and leave the northern African country. A spokeswoman for the UN body Melissa Fleming told a news briefing that they received the notice from the Libyan authorities without any explanation.
She said, "We have not been given any reason by Libyan authorities for why we should leave the country."
The order puts the future of more than 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers at risk, she said.
Thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa pass through Libya on their way to Europe each year.
She said the UNHCR, which has been working in Libya since 1991, is important as the North African nation has no procedure for registering refugees.
"UNHCR is the asylum system in Libya," AP news agency quotes Ms Fleming as saying.
"This will leave a huge vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers who are there already and of course those who continue to arrive steadily on boats."
About 9,000 refugees - mainly Palestinians, Iraqis, Sudanese and Somalis - had been registered in Libya, she said. The 3,700 asylum seekers were mainly from Eritrea, she added.
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