London, United Kingdom – Sarah Mizran, a 32-year-old architect, was a teenager when Tripoli fell in August 2011, as opposition fighters swept into the capital. It was the beginning of the end for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Having ruled for 42 years, he was soon captured and killed near Sirte.
Eight years ago, Mizran left the city for the United Kingdom. Already drawn to the concept of sustainable architecture and what it could mean for Libya, Mizran pursued a master’s degree in architecture in southern England. But that experience has given me perspective and skills that I would not otherwise have had,” she said.
Nader Elgadi, 36, was running his own media company in Tripoli when, in late 2014, fighting broke out around the capital’s airport during Libya’s second civil war. He also came to the UK for a master’s degree and had planned to go home, but as threats to activists mounted, he stayed instead. The group hosts events for the diaspora community trying to build “a sense of that country we always wished for”.
Fifteen years on, both describe the UK as home, even as Libya pulls at them. Whether that dispersal of talent has held Libya back is up for debate. Tarek Megerisi, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said “tens of thousands of very good, technically proficient people” are still working in Libya’s ministries, but claimed they are blocked from doing their jobs by more senior officials with little interest in governing.
Much of that took root soon after the revolution, he believes. Many skilled young professionals, but also older Libyans, whose qualifications and whose experience were often vastly overstated, used their standing to secure political positions and promised to lead the country to democracy. Instead, they basically just acted like Gaddafi’s government did,” Megerisi said.
He said corruption plagues some ministries in an environment that has driven away the generation that came of age after 2011. Toby Chitayat, an associate at CRI Menas, a UK risk consultancy, is more sceptical that the brain drain is doing much damage. Set against Libya’s east-west split, its volatile oil revenue and endemic corruption, he argued its effect on governance or investor confidence “is comparatively minimal” but acknowledged that it remains “far too early to say anything definitive about the prospect of serious re-engagement with the country.” For those who left, calculus is more personal.
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