Libya repatriates 161 Nigerian refugees in UN-backed scheme

Libya has returned 161 Nigerians to Nigeria as part of a United Nations-backed voluntary repatriation scheme.

Reports indicate that current group comprising of about half of whom were women and also included six children, was assisted at an airport in Tripoli by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) and arrived in Lagos on Monday night.

Libyan and Nigerian representatives repprtedly met the people before their departure, which is one of about a dozen transports taking place this year.

Imed Trabelsi, the interior minister of the UN-recognised government based in war-torn Libya’s west, was quoted as telling reporters that “we cannot bear the burden of clandestine migration alone”.

The Nigerians who were repatriated were taken out of prisons across Libya, with the minister saying 102 were intercepted at the border crossing between Libya and Tunisia – where many are headed in the hope that they can reach Europe.

The North African neighbours on August 10 agreed to share responsibility for providing shelter for hundreds of people stranded at their border, potentially signalling an end to a crisis triggered by mass expulsions of refugees by Tunis.

Many refugees had been driven to the desert border by Tunisia last month and abandoned without food, water or shelter after violence erupted in the port city of Sfax and left one Tunisian dead.

Libya is a major gateway for migrants and asylum seekers attempting perilous sea voyages in often rickety boats in the hope of a better life in Europe.

An estimated 600,000 migrants live in the war-scarred country, which has seen 12 years of stop-start conflict since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

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Libyan authorities have come under sharp criticism from the United Nations and rights groups over reported violence against migrants.

Samuel Okeri, an official with Nigeria’s embassy in Tripoli, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency that the 161 people were “not forced back” home on Monday.

“They are going back willingly. And as you can see, they are not sad but happy to go back to Nigeria. There is no place like home,” he said.

An estimated 600,000 refugees and migrants live in Libya, which has seen 12 years of stop-start conflict since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Since the start of July, at least 27 have been found dead in the border area and another 73 were missing, a humanitarian source told AFP earlier this month.

The worst armed clashes in a year broke out in Libya’s capital earlier this month, killing at least 55 people, according to the authorities.