CAIRO — Egyptian and Libyan security authorities have agreed to coordinate Egyptian laborers' entry to Libya by opening offices in the border cities of Sallum, Egypt, and Masaed, Libya. The agreement comes in anticipation of Libya's reconstruction in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, years of civil war and the resulting chaos that opened the door to the Islamic State (IS) in 2015.

Under the agreement signed March 17, Egyptian laborers will undergo security clearance by Egyptian agencies (which were not identified) affiliated with the police or army. Then in Libya, the Interior Ministry of the interim government will be responsible for security clearances for workers to enter that country.

On March 7, the Libyan-Egyptian Joint Economic Chamber organized its second economic forum in Alexandria to discuss ways to overcome obstacles to trade and people’s movement between the countries. The forum underlined the need to work on returning Egyptian laborers to Libya and to extend invitations to some Egyptian businessmen and companies to visit. During his speech at the forum, Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce head Ahmed al-Wakil called for allowing the return to Libya of a vast number of more than 2 million Egyptians who had worked there before the 2011 revolution, many of whom returned to Egypt because of the political and security instability in Libya.

Egypt had completely banned travel to Libya since February 2015 because of the danger. But as security improved, parliament member Mahdi al-Umda called in January for reopening the Sallum land crossing to Egyptian laborers.