180 Nigerians stranded in Libya to be repatriated next week

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- 180 Nigerians stranded in Libya would be repatriated back to their home country by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), on Monday, January 8

- The IOM has identified 432,574 migrants in Libya, mainly in the Tripoli, Misrata and Almargeb regions

- Nigeria is among the top 4 countries whose migrants were returned from the North Africa country in 2017

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) would on Monday, January 8, repatriate 180 Nigerians stranded in Libya back to their home country.

The UN migration agency said the repatriation is under its continuing Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) programme, which aimed at assisting voluntary returnees stranded in Libya to their homelands.

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NAIJ.com gathers that it said last Monday, January 1, IOM’s Libya mission chartered its first flight of 2018 under the VHR, assisting 142 returnees departing from Libya to Gambia.

“The UN Migration Agency’s next charter is set for Monday January 8, when around 180 Nigerian nationals are scheduled to be assisted under VHR to Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and commercial hub.

“That flight will bring to close to 20,000, the number of migrants IOM has escorted home from Libya since the beginning of 2017.

“IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) has identified 432,574 migrants in Libya, mainly in the Tripoli, Misrata and Almargeb regions, and estimates the number of migrants to be between 700,000 and one million,” it said.

The global migration agency said VHR was a programme that resulted in 19,370 stranded Third Country Nationals leaving primarily in the Tripoli area in 2017.

IOM said some 11,074 migrants had gone back to their home countries since it scaled up its efforts to facilitate the help for migrants interested in return assistance from Libya following the unrest in Sabratha in October.

It added: “The top four countries of return in 2017 were: Nigeria, Gambia, Guinea Conakry and Mali with a charter to Nigeria on December 29, 2017, marking the last VHR movement in 2017."

For the past year, the return of migrants has been funded by the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Norway and Finland.

The other sponsors are the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration of the U.S. Department of State.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that following the outrage over the African slave trade in Libya, the federal government said an additional 250 Nigerians would be repatriated.

Speaking during a protest by the OurMumuDonDo group at the Headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affair in Abuja, the Charge d'Affairs in Tripoli, Iliya Fachano, said the embassy in Libya visits detention camps in Tripoli where Nigerians - usually referred to as illegal migrants- are detained by Libyan authorities.

Mass deportation: Tales of woes from Libya - on NAIJ.com TV: