Over 100 Somali returnees from Libya are expected to arrive in the capital city of Mogadishu. According to reliable sources who spoke to Halbeeg News, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is helping 17 Somali migrants to voluntarily return home from Libya.
About 124 Somali migrants, who faced months of confinement in detention centers in the North African country, were expected to arrive in Mogadishu later on Wednesday. For the last four years, Libya has become a major transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East, who are trying to get to Europe to flee from political instability and violence at home and for better economic opportunities as well.
Since 2014, more than 600,000 people have crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy. But the number of illegal migrants housed in Libyan detention centers has risen dramatically this year since armed groups in the western city of Sabratha began preventing boats from departing for Europe. After clashes in Sabratha in September, thousands of migrants held near the coast were transferred to detention centers under the nominal control of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli. However, Amnesty International said in December 2017 that up to 20,000 people were being held in detention centers and were subject to “torture, forced labor, extortion, and unlawful killings.”
