The Libyan coast guard
has carried out three separate rescue missions off the western coasts,
saving about 500 refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.
A Libyan naval forces spokesman said on Tuesday that about half of
the refugees were rescued off the two coasts of Tripoli and Sabratha.
They were mainly from the sub-Saharan countries although people from
Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia were also on board, the spokesman said.
“Coast guards rescued early morning today 140 illegal migrants west
of Tripoli and another group of 164 migrants were rescued off Sabratha
including seven women and six children,” said the spokesman.
Officials said another 150 refugees were rescued later in the day off Tripoli.
The rescues, almost large is size, are the latest to come from a
refugee crisis that continues to grip North Africa and Southern Europe.
Hundreds of thousands of people have dared the risky journey through
the central Mediterranean to the north to the Italian coasts over the
past years.
The flow was overshadowed by even a bigger exodus that began to hit
Europe’s eastern shores in 2015 as more than a million, mostly from
war-torn countries of the Middle East, crossed into the continent from
the Greek shores. A deal between Turkey and the European Union in March
next year caused the Turkey-emanated flow to ebb but at the expense of a
fresh surge in illegal travels in central Mediterranean. Refugees from Africa receive food at a naval base in Tripoli
after being rescued by Libyan coast guards in the Mediterranean Sea off
the Libyan coast on August 29, 2017. (AFP photo)
Libya has been the main embarkation point for refugee trips across
the route as many parts of the country still suffer from lawlessness,
which came after the ouster in 2011 of long-time dictator Muammar
Gaddafi.
Estimates by the UN-backed International Organization for Migration
shows about 600,000 refugees have reached Italy by sea from North Africa
since 2014, and more than 12,000 have drowned while trying.
Officials from Libya and two other African countries met European
leaders in Paris, France, on Monday to discuss ways to support nations
struggling to contain the flow of people. A mechanism has been agreed
for the identification of the so-called legitimate refugees who really
move out of their countries to escape war and prosecution. The process
should be implemented under the supervision of United Nations
representatives in Niger and Chad.
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