“The Irish Times” newspaper reported the story of an Irish citizen, of Libyan origin, who was left trapped in Libya due to his inability to renew his Irish passport.
The newspaper said that the Irish citizen, “Taher Al-Sharif”, who suffers from deteriorating health, is stuck in Libya and is afraid that he will not be able to see his Irish children again, unless he is able at least to obtain an emergency travel document to return from Tripoli.
<span;>Al-Sharif arrived in Ireland in the 1970s as an engineering student at Kevin Street College of Technology at the time. He married an Irishwoman and ran a service repair company in Ireland, before he was naturalized as an Irish citizen in 1988.
The newspaper pointed out that “Al-Sharif” returned to Libya in 2011, after separating from his wife, and had adult children living in “Dublin”.
Al-Sharif spoke to the Irish Times by phone from Tripoli, saying that in 2018 he decided to return to Ireland due to the deteriorating security situation and his deteriorating health, as he suffered serious complications due to diabetes, including kidney and vision failures.
Since there is no Irish embassy or consulate in Libya, Al-Sharif had to travel to the Irish embassies in Malaysia in October 2019, Egypt in March 2019, and Turkey in November 2018, seeking help, but to no avail.
Al-Sharif commented by saying: “I am trapped here, in a country that is not safe for an old man in poor health, and I want to see my children again to tell them that I love them before I die.”
His daughter, who asked not to be named, said that she made several efforts to help him, while a spokeswoman for the Irish Foreign Ministry said she could not comment on an individual case.
