Around 15,000 illegal migrants from 35 African and Asian countries have been voluntarily repatriated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) from Libya to their home countries, IOM announced on Monday.
Through its Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) Program, IOM has helped many stranded migrants to return to their homeland as the number of detainees has been alarmingly increasing.
Launched in 2016, the VHR, which is part of the EU-IOM joint initiative, aims to assist migrants through the expansion of reception centers, reintegration activities and community-based support to returnees and victims of trafficking.
It also provides basic needs for the migrants awaiting their return and allows them to safely reunite with their families.
In October, IOM announced it the transfer of around 1,314 migrants to their countries of origin in 2018.
Despite the civil war and lack of security, Libya continues to be the main transit and destination point for migrants looking for a better life in Europe.
Thousands of migrants continue to cross Africa’s Sahel into Libya and then across the Central Mediterranean into Europe, driven by despair they face in their home countries, regardless of the challenges and risks they might face.
“The majority of refugees registered comprise of Palestinians (5,312 individuals) and Iraqis (2,462 individuals), while the majority of asylum-seekers comprise of Syrians (23,203 individuals) and Sudanese nationals (9,409 individuals),” according to the UNHCR’s report in October.
With being unable to enter Europe, namely Italy, due to the European Union’s migration policy or being rescued at the Mediterranean by the EU-backed Libyan Coast Guard, hundreds of migrants and refugees have returned to Libya and have been automatically placed in detention centers.
Hence, in recent months, there has been an alarming rise in the number of refugees and migrants intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, with the figure nearly doubling from 5,500 to 9,300 between 2017 and 2018.
In Libya’s overcrowded detention centers, migrants and refugees face severe abuses, including rape and torture, extortion, forced labour, slavery, and dire living conditions.
Due to the fighting that shook Tripoli in August between rival groups, hundreds of migrants at detention centers have been abandoned without food or water.
Some 400 people were abandoned in the detention center at Ain Zara in southern Tripoli, part of a network of state facilities where migrants intercepted by the coastguard are held, one aid worker told Reuters.
To help them out of these inhuman centers, IOM has coordinated with the Libyan authorities, embassies and consulates in countries of return along with IOM country offices and other international organizations.
