Libya deports over 150 Nigerians (women and children) as part of a UN-backed voluntary return program for irregular migrants, officials confirmed on Tuesday (UN Repatriation Scheme).
Mohamad Baredaa, an official from Libya’s migration agency, told AFP that the deported migrants were all Nigerian women accompanied by children. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN agency assisting with the repatriation, reported that the group included 160 women and 17 children.
Dressed in black tracksuits, the migrants were seen gathered in a waiting area at a Tripoli detention center before being transported by bus to Mitiga Airport for their return flight.
Libyan authorities have announced additional repatriation flights this week from Mitiga Airport in Tripoli and an airport in Benghazi.
The upcoming flights will deport migrants from Bangladesh, Gambia, and Mali, according to Baredaa.
Libya has long been a major transit hub for migrants, mainly from Africa, attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. However, the country’s instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Moamer Kadhafi has worsened human trafficking and migrant exploitation.
The IOM estimates that over 700,000 migrants currently reside in Libya. However, Libyan officials claim the number is much higher, with Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi suggesting there could be more than four million undocumented migrants in the country.
Trabelsi assured Libyans that the country “will not bear the burden of illegal immigration alone and will not become a settlement zone.”
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