UNCHR: More than 4000 migrants rescued and returned to Libya this year alone

Despite international human rights laws stating that returning migrants to Libya is inhumane, more than 4000 of them have been brought back to Libyan shores this year alone

The UNCHR reported that a thousand of the returned migrants have been brought back in the last week alone. [Photo: IOM]
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) announced this week that more than 4000 migrants have been rescued off the coast of Libya and returned to the country since the start of 2021.

According to a report issued by the UNCHR this Friday, more than 8000 people in Tripoli, Al-Zawiya and Misrata received food baskets sufficient for one month, stressing that it continues, in cooperation with the World Food Program (WFP), to support refugees and asylum-seekers who endure a lack of food provisions.

The UNHCR report indicated that last week, the Tripoli Registration Office received a total of 509 refugees, as well as 195 other refugees and asylum-seekers, 92 from Sudan, 87 from Syria and 7 from Palestine, of whom newly registered persons were provided with UNHCR certificates.

The report also noted that UNHCR’s partner, CESVI, provided cash assistance to 146 refugees and asylum-seekers, including regular cash assistance to 23 individuals and emergency cash assistance to 123 people.

The Danish Refugee Council had also provided advance cash cards to 145 internally displaced families in Riana, as well as the distribution of pre-payment cash cards by their partner ACTED, to 307 displaced families in Benghazi and 134 in Sabha.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reemphasised that it is against human rights laws to return migrants to Libya.

Since the eruption of the chaos that followed the 17 of February revolution in 2011, Libya has become a point of departure for thousands of migrants attempting to escape Africa and cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

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