TRIPOLI, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Minister of Labor, Al-Mehdi Al-Amin, announced on Wednesday that arrangements are being made for a technical committee to visit Cairo in July to discuss possibility of return of Egyptian workers to Libya.
"The recent visit to Cairo, the meetings of the Arab Labor Organization, and the joint discussions with a large number of representatives of Arab labor ministries have been fruitful and positive, especially with our Egyptian counterpart," Al-Amin told Xinhua on Saturday.
Al-Amin revealed that a Libyan technical committee will visit Cairo in July to discuss the possibility of return of Egyptian workers to Libya.
"We met with the Egyptian Minister of Manpower. Despite observations on the security aspect, we talked about the remarkable improvement (of security) in the west of the country ... It is true that stability is relative, but it can provide an environment to safeguard the rights of Egyptian workers," the Libyan minister said.
"Egyptian labor is skilled and has the ability to help us in future opportunities of reconstruction. We will work hard to preserve their legal and security rights," Al-Amin said.
"We have cooperation with many countries, but Egypt is an exception because it is a neighbor and sister country because of important geographical and cultural considerations. From my point of view, Egyptians can help us in many areas, especially in construction and infrastructure," Al-Amin said, when asked about Libya's dependence on Egypt's workers in particular.
A high-level Libyan delegation headed by the Minister of Labor participated in the 45th Arab Labor Conference in the Egyptian capital Cairo last month.
Egyptian Minister of Manpower, Mohamed Saafan, expressed his country's willingness to provide Libya with all its needs of Egyptian labor to work in safe and stable areas.
After meeting with his Libyan counterpart, Saafan stressed the need to activate continuous communication between the two sides in all fields, as well as joint labor agreements.
Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Gaddafi's regime, most foreign companies and workers had to leave Libya due to insecurity and chaos, and many development projects in the country have been suspended.
According to semi-official government figures, more than one million Egyptians workers were in Libya working in various fields before 2011.
