UNHCR resumes evacuation of migrants from Libya for third countries’ resettlement

BY Libyan Express May 09, 2018 - 13:01

The UNHCR also documented the return of 250.000 Libyan IDPs to their cities since the start of 2017. [Photo: the United Nations]

UNHCR has resumed evacuation of migrants from Libya with a flight of 132 mostly Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers to Niger for resettlement in third countries.

The group left Tripoli’s Mitiga airport on Tuesday but the aircraft had a technical problem and had to turn back, UN officials said. They were due to depart again late on Wednesday.

UNHCR previously evacuated more than a thousand refugees and asylum seekers to Niger, but the process was suspended from late February because of delays in resettling them in Western countries.

Several hundred refugees were resettled directly from Libya, but numbers were limited because most Western embassies evacuated Tripoli in 2014.

Another evacuation flight from Libya to Niger is planned for next week, said UNHCR official Omar Bugharsa.

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