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With reference to its observation, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on the following points.

Article 6 of the Convention. The Committee once again requests the Government to indicate, with regard to the family allowance paid under Act No. 13 of 1980, in what manner and under which provisions effect is given to Article 6 of the Convention, in accordance with which the grant of family allowances shall be guaranteed both to nationals of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and to nationals of any other State that has accepted the obligations of the Convention for the family allowances branch (branch (i)) in respect of children who reside in the territory of any such State, under conditions and within limits to be agreed upon by the States concerned. (So far, in addition to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the following States have accepted branch (i): Bolivia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, France, Guinea, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mauritania, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Tunisia and Uruguay.)

Article 7. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the information provided by the Government that a recommendation had been made to the competent authorities to take into consideration the Committee’s observations concerning the bilateral agreements concluded by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya with Turkey and Tunisia. It therefore hopes that the Government will be able to indicate in its next report the efforts that have been made to improve the application of Article 7 of the Convention with regard to the following points:

(a)  Since no agreement has been entered into with the Syrian Arab Republic, which has also ratified the Convention, and since there are a large number of Syrian workers in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Committee hopes that the Government will endeavour to participate with that State in a scheme for the maintenance of acquired rights and rights in course of acquisition, in accordance with Article 7 of the Convention.

(b)  The Committee recalls that the social security agreement concluded with Tunisia deals only with the maintenance of acquired rights and that the agreement entered into with Turkey does not cover the question of the maintenance of rights in course of acquisition for short-term benefits, whereas Article 7 provides that Members that have ratified the Convention shall endeavour to participate in schemes for the maintenance of acquired rights and rights in course of acquisition for all the branches of social security in respect of which the Members concerned have accepted the obligations of the Convention. The Committee hopes that the Government will be able to take into account the above comments when concluding any new bilateral or multilateral social security agreements with other Members concerned. The Committee also hopes that the Government will endeavour to extend the scope of the agreement with Turkey so as to cover the scheme for self-employed workers of that country, a scheme that appears to be excluded from the scope of this agreement.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2005.]