The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday said that there are more than 2,300 illegal immigrants detained in dire conditions in Libya.
“Over 2,300 migrants are detained in dire conditions in Libya. IOM and humanitarian partners continue to provide emergency assistance while advocating for their orderly release,” IOM tweeted.
As thousands of illegal immigrants, who were either rescued at sea or arrested by the authorities, remain detained in shelters in Libya, IOM has maintained that Libya is not a safe port for rescued immigrants and that the detention system must be dismantled.
IOM estimates that more than 5,800 illegal immigrants, including women and children, have been rescued at sea and returned to Libya so far in 2020, while 9,225 illegal immigrants were rescued and returned to Libya in 2019.
The state of insecurity and chaos that plagued the country since the 2011 fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime encourage many illegal immigrants to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya towards Europe.
The IOM had been running the Voluntary Humanitarian Return program that arranges the return of illegal immigrants stranded in Libya back to their countries of origin, before the Libyan authorities closed the country’s borders as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.
