Libya sends 142 migrants back to Guinea
Guinean migrants board a plane in Misrata to be deported to their home country, 27 December (Reuters)
Libya put 142 migrants on a flight back to Guinea in western Africa on Wednesday with the help of the UN migration agency, officials said, as the North African country steps up deportations to ease severe overcrowding in its detention centres.
The number of people stuck in Libyan detention centres has risen dramatically this year after armed groups largely shut down the boat route to Italy from the smuggling hub of Sabratha.
The deportations come in the wake of a CNN report on migrants being sold for slave labour that sparked an international outcry.
Migrant flows through Libya have surged since 2014. More than 600,000 people have crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy in the past three years, but departures from Libya's coast dropped sharply in July when armed groups in Sabratha began preventing boats from leaving.
After clashes in the western city in September, thousands of migrants held near the coast emerged and were transferred to detention centres under the nominal control of the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
Amnesty International said this month that up to 20,000 people are being held in detention centres and are subject to "torture, forced labour, extortion, and unlawful killings". Other human rights organisations have made similar statements in recent months.
“European governments have not just been fully aware of these abuses; by actively supporting the Libyan authorities in stopping sea crossings and containing people in Libya, they are complicit in these crimes,” Amnesty’s Europe Director, John Dalhuisen, said in a statement earlier this month.
[contf]
[contfnew]
middle east eye
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
The post Libya sends 142 migrants back to Guinea appeared first on News Wire Now.
