318 illegal migrants rescued off Libyan coast: UN migration agency
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday said that a lot more than 300 illegal migrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast in the last week.
“In the time of 9-15 February, 318 migrants were rescued/intercepted at ocean and returned to Libya,” stated the UN migration agency.
Up to now in 2021, a complete of 2,274 against the law migrants, including 213 women and 160 kids, were rescued at sea and cut back to Libya, it said.
The agency also said that 20 unlawful migrants died and 70 others went missing on the Central Mediterranean route so far this year.
Due to the state of insecurity and chaos found in the North African nation following overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, thousands of against the law immigrants, mostly Africans, chose to cross the Mediterranean from Libya towards Europe.
In 2020, 323 migrants died and 417 others went lacking on the Central Mediterranean route, while 11,891 unlawful migrants were rescued and returned to Libya, based on the IOM.
Alternatively, the US High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), combined with the IOM and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), distributed relief items to practically 1,000 asylum seekers and migrants in a detention center in Tripoli, the UNHCR explained.
“While we provide assistance to detainees, we reiterate our call for the launching of the very most vulnerable and a finish to arbitrary detention,” the UNHCR said on Monday.
