{"id":33421,"date":"2017-03-24T10:31:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T10:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nigerian-migrants-flown-home-from-libya\/"},"modified":"2017-03-24T10:31:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T10:31:14","slug":"nigerian-migrants-flown-home-from-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nigerian-migrants-flown-home-from-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian migrants flown home from Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Libyan authorities on Thursday flew home 159 Nigerian migrants stranded after failing to reach Europe, in the second such voluntary repatriation operation this week.}<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In coordination with the IOM (International Organization for Migration), we are repatriating 159 Nigerians&#8230; including three infants,&#8221; Badreddine Ben Hamed, head of Libya&#8217;s anti-illegal immigration force, told AFP at Mitiga airport.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerians, wearing tracksuits and new sneakers, were driven to the airport near the Libyan capital in two buses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wish I could go to Europe but I can&#8217;t,&#8221; said a woman called Fate, carrying a baby in her arms.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m happy to be going home,&#8221; said another Nigerian woman.<\/p>\n<p>IOM head William Lacy Swing, who was in Tripoli on Wednesday, visited a reception centre for migrants accompanied by the UN special envoy for Libya, Martin Kobler.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can no longer turn our back on the communities affected by the current migration crisis&#8221; in Libya, said Swing, who met with Libyan officials.<\/p>\n<p>Kobler said it was &#8220;a humanitarian imperative&#8221; to improve the living conditions of migrants and help with repatriations. &#8220;Voluntary return must be assisted,&#8221; he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>A group of 150 nationals of the Ivory Coast, gathered from detention centres around Libya, were flown home on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Six years since a revolution that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for clandestine migration to Europe via perilous boat crossings of the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<p>The IOM has said 521 migrants died in the Mediterranean from January 1 to March 5, 2017.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-18919 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/pix_2_.jpg\" alt=\"A young female migrant disembarks from a chartered aircraft that returned 155 stranded Nigerian migrants from Libya at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, on March 23, 2017. \" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Source:AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Libyan authorities on Thursday flew home 159 Nigerian migrants stranded after failing to reach Europe, in the second such voluntary repatriation operation this week.} &#8220;In coordination with the IOM (International Organization for Migration), we are repatriating 159 Nigerians&#8230; including three infants,&#8221; Badreddine Ben Hamed, head of Libya&#8217;s anti-illegal immigration force, told AFP at Mitiga airport. 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