UNHCR evacuates 120 refugees from Libya to Italy
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Nearly 120 people were evacuated on Wednesday on a charter flight from Libya to Italy, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced.
In a statement, the UNHCR said they included children, women at risk, victims of violence and some people who had just been released from detention.
The passengers on the UNHCR-chartered flight are of different nationalities, including Sudanese, Somalis, Syrians, Eritreans and Ethiopians.
The UNHCR said the evacuation flight, supported by the Italian government, is part of a mechanism combining emergency evacuations with humanitarian corridors set up in Italy since 2016.
The UN refugee agency said it was counting on the international community to provide safe routes out of Libya for some of the most vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees.
According to UNHCR, including Wednesday's flight, 1,368 asylum seekers have been evacuated to Italy since 2017, while 9,474 people have left Libya on evacuation, resettlement or complementary flights in the same period.
Statistics from the Italian Ministry of the Interior revealed that 85,991 people arrived by sea in Italy between 1 January and 2 November 2022, with half of them being Tunisian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi citizens.
This is up from 53,825 immigrants in the same period of 2021, and 28,353 immigrants in 2020.
Libya, which is both a transit and destination country for migrants, has been confronted in recent years with large waves of migrants, some of whom are victims of networks of smugglers, traffickers or human traffickers who take advantage of the insecurity to exploit them by organising journeys on board makeshift boats, risking their lives to get to Europe.
Since the beginning of 2022, 20,842 migrants have been intercepted and returned to Libya, including 19,075 men, 1,089 women and 678 children, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). It said 514 others have died and 865 are missing. In 2021, 32,425 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya.
-0- PANA BY/JSG/BBA/MA 1Dec2022
