Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 03-12-2017
The United Nations migration agency plans to fly 15,000 more migrants home from detention centres in Libya before year-end in the wake of shocking reports of rampant migrant abuse and squalid and overcrowded conditions at these facilities across the North African country.
Libya in recent weeks has witnessed a drastic increase in the numbers of migrants held in detention centres – from a usual range of 5,000 to 6,000 to over 15,000, as migrants have been transferred from unofficial detention centres in Sabratha.
Migrants face smuggling and mistreatment during their journey on the central Mediterranean route, which claimed 2,803 migrant lives to drowning this year alone.
Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Lacy Swing says scaling up the return programme may not serve to fully address the plight of migrants in Libya.
“But it is our duty to take migrants out of detention centers as a matter of absolute priority.”
IOM’s voluntary humanitarian return programme has brought more than 14,007 migrants back their home countries so far in 2017, a significant increased from the 2,775 voluntary returns carried out in 2016.
A large-scale airlift already underway will take an additional 15,000 migrants home from detention in Libya by year-end.
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