Welcome to Libya – but don’t all rush
TRIPOLI – The World Travel Market Global Trend Report 2007 this week named Libya as a country to watch. It had the potential to become one of the world’s tourism hot spots, it said.
But don’t tell that to a group of 188 French tourists who didn’t even make it beyond passport control in Tripoli last Sunday.
As Travelmole reader Jorl-Boye Moller pointed out, “Authorities overnight had introduced a new regulation to the effect that you have to show up with a translation of your passport into Arabic.
“Two consequences: the 188 were back in Paris before planned and the 80 waiting in Tripoli to fly home Sunday had to wait another 24 hours before the French authorities got hold of another plane to pick them up. So much for the bright future.”
Libya this week confirmed it would turn away Western visitors to the north African nation unless they provide Arabic translations of their passports.
“Libya will not reverse its decision, nor will it take into consideration the international reaction,” and uproar triggered by the new restrictions, a Libyan official said.
“The West demands that we translate our passports into English and therefore we must act in kind. It is only normal,” said the official.
“Travellers arriving with foreign language passports are perturbing officials at border posts and airports because they don’t know foreign languages,” the official added.
He said Libya adopted Arabic as the country’s sole language after the revolution but in a bid to encourage tourism it scrapped the measure in 2005, before reviving it this month.
“We must defend our Arabic language. There will be no compromise,” he told AFP.
The measure is in response to a decision to prevent Libyans with visas for the EU’s Schengen border-free zone from entering certain European countries, notably France and Britain, a Libyan aviation official said.
The current Schengen zone nations include France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway and Iceland, but not Britain or Ireland.
Ian Jarrett
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