By Libya Herald reporter
Malta, 8 February 2015:
Libya’s Civil Registry Authority (CRA) announced yesterday that it is to open overseas bureau in . . .[restrict]Libyan embassies and consulates in countries with high Libyan populations.
The new move will start in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, the two countries with the highest concentration of Libyan Diasporas.
The aim of the new move is to help Libyan citizens abroad process their civil status affairs in an easier manner. Currently Libyans abroad are forced to either return home to process their civil affairs or rely on friends or relatives to carry out the process for them.
However, relying on a third party is often not possible as the CRA usually insist on citizens processing their CRA in person.
These include the addition of births and deaths in family books, the obtaining of a National ID Number etc.
The CRA also revealed that the move is also as a result of the Central Bank of Libya’s announcement that no state salaries, state sponsored scholarships or health treatment will be disbursed without the use of the National ID Number.
The CRA confirmed that the first such bureau will be opened in Tunis on 15 February with the second expected to follow in Cairo soon after.
Other bureau will open, the CRA said, in other embassies and consulates, such as Jordan and Morocco, according to the cooperation and response of Libyan missions in countries with large Libyan Diaspora populations.
The announcement by the CRA will come as good news for the Libyan Diaspora, estimated in the hundreds of thousands, having mushroomed after the 2011 revolution and the subsequent breakdown of security and law and order in the country.
Libya’s dire economic situation due to the collapse in international crude oil prices and its collapse in oil production due to the factional fighting, has resulted in huge deficits.
The move to introduce the National ID Number is one of the austerity measures intended to fight corruption and the duplication of salaries and state handouts and subsidies.
The CRA stressed that it is a service provider for all Libyan citizens domestically and now abroad, and that as a service provider it is unrelated or connected to any political affilitations or orientations. Its duty is to serve and assist the Libyan citizen, it concluded in its statement. [/restrict]
