Libya has recorded over 170 irregular migrants who returned to Nigeria on Tuesday, including women and children with more to leave Libya soon.
Mohammed Baredaa, head of the Libyan interior ministry organisation announced the operation of the migrants as they are saddled with the responsibility of halting the process. He said that they have already begun to repatriate 170 irregular migrants who are from Nigeria including 39 women and six Children.
Depending on the nationality , the operation can be carried out by plane or road and it will continue over the coming weeks, Mohammed said.
The international Organization of Migration is given the responsibility to help vulnerable migrants in Libya who also want to return home, through its voluntary humanitarian return programme. This is done because many smugglers and human traffickers have used that privilege of instability in Libya to commit crime since Dictator Moamer Kadhafi toppled and killed the NATO-Backed uprising in 2011.
Libya is a key departure point in North Africa because it is 300 kilometers from Italy for the sub-saharan migrants who do not want to use sea journeys to Europe.
“I have been in Libya for three years to work and earn money and move to Europe,” Zakaria Abubaker Shueib, a 20-year-old Nigerian migrant who is to be repatriated, told AFP.
The IOM report reveals that the death and disappearance of migrants increased to 4,984 in 2023 on the Middle East and North Africa route.
“Tunisia accounts for the highest number of incidents recorded followed by Libya with 683 recorded deaths of migrants, the majority of whom left western Libya, said the report published in mid-June.” IOM report says.
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