A total of 5,000 migrants were deported to their homelands in 2019 as part of the voluntary return program of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya, IOM announced Thursday.
Migrants from Libya’s neighboring African countries such as Chad exploit the lack of security to cross the borders and try to travel to European countries through the Mediterranean for a better life.
In May, 1,287 migrants were intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guards while crossing the Mediterranean to Europe in 2019, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) announced Friday.
The UNHCR added that 161 migrants were rescued Friday night, 82 miles northwest of al-Khoms, eastern Tripoli.
Until the authorities repatriate them to their homeland, illegal immigrants stay in detention centres across Libya where they suffer from lack of basic needs and face human trafficking.
On June 20, the U.S. Department of State accused the Government of National Accord (GNA) of cooperating with human traffickers to exploit migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya, according to the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The GNA is unable to address human trafficking in Libya due to the government’s “corruption” and the alleged control of armed groups on GNA ministries, according to the report.
“There is a reported high prevalence of sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence and exploitation of female migrants either along the migration routes to Libya or once inside Libya, including in GNA-run and militia-run detention facilities,” it added.
