The barbaric beheadings came in for strong condemnation from the Portuguese government with shock being expressed at what it described as the “cowardly murder” of 21 Egyptian citizens in Libya, perpetrated by Islamic State militants.
According to the BBC, the kidnapped Egyptian workers, all Coptic Christians, were seized in December and January from the coastal town of Sirte in eastern Libya, now under the control of Islamist groups.
Reuters reported how “Thousands of Egyptians desperate for work, have travelled to Libya since an uprising at home in 2011, despite advice from their government not to go to a country sliding into lawlessness.”
Portugal’s Foreign Minister Rui Machete termed the spread of IS into other parts of northern Africa as a “matter of concern”.
He added that Italy needed greater European Union assistance in dealing with the illegal migrant flows attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, with the EU needing to prioritise the upgrading of control over its southern border.
Meanwhile Portugal’s State Secretary for Communities José Cesário has said there may still be Portuguese citizens living in Libya after ten Portuguese nationals were evacuated last summer due to the rising instability.
The government says it has not received any requests for help from Portuguese citizens in Libya where IS militants are gaining ground.
Questioned by Lusa News Agency about the possibility that nationals could remain in the north-African country, José Cesário admitted “there might still be” one or two, but added that the Government has not received any requests for help from Portuguese citizens wanting to leave the country.
Last July the Portuguese government decided to temporarily suspend its diplomatic representation in the Libyan capital Tripoli because of the growing unrest, and repatriated around a dozen Portuguese citizens. At the time several opted to stay.
The Portuguese government currently maintains its travel advice recommendations for Libya, discouraging Portuguese nationals from travelling to the country.
Last weekend Italy also closed its embassy in Tripoli due to the advance of IS militants. It was one of the last European diplomatic missions to close their doors in Libya.
Speaking to the press in Rome, where Portugal’s Foreign Affairs Minister Rui Machete was visiting for the investiture of Lisbon Patriarch Manuel Clemente as a Cardinal, Machete said the headway of the self-proclaimed Islamic State is “a European problem.”
The extremists have named Paolo Gentil-oni, the head of the Italian diplomatic mission, as a target for elimination after he said their advancing should not been seen as a problem pertaining to Italy alone just because of its geographical proximity.
Machete added that, even after IS declared the whole of the Iberian Peninsula as a target in its plan, Portugal does not have, as yet, any reason to up its level of threat from terrorism.
“We don’t think that there is presently any reason for particular alarm, but we must be vigilant”, he said, adding that Portugal has a special envoy in Tunisia that keeps the country informed on the advancing of IS in Libya, which the Minister described as a “situation that is unfortunately very complex and difficult.”