Some 174 Nigerians stranded in war-ravaged Libya on Friday returned home from the tortuous journey in the North African country.
They were received on Friday by Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency.
The returnees arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, reports News Agency of Nigeria.
Their return was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union Under the Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.
The returnees were aboard an Al Buraq Airlines Boeing 737-8000 aircraft with registration number 5A-DMG.
The returnees included 10 families made up of 61 female adults, four female children and eight female infants, according to an official of the relief agency Segun Afolayan.
Also, there were 91 male adults, six male children and four male infants, along with an unaccompanied male child, among the returnees, he said.
According to the IOM’s, Displacement Tracking Matrix between July and August 2018 identified at least 669,176 migrants in Libya.
The top five nationalities identified were Nigerien, Egyptian, Chadian, Sudanese and Nigerian, together these nationalities account for up to 69% of Libya’s migrant population.
In 2017 a CNN footage showed instances of migrants being auctioned in Libya. The footage of the men being auctioned off as slaves in Libya was met with outrage.
After the footage emerged, protests erupted in Paris and other cities, while Libyans expressed solidarity with the victims with the hashtag #LibyansAgainstSlavery.
Source: Africafeeds.com
