Libya deports Sudanese migrants amid crackdown
Libyan authorities have deported hundreds of Sudanese back to Sudan in a crackdown on migrants seeking to flee war and poverty for Europe, reported on July 20th by Africanews.
In central and southern central Libya seven hundred Sudanese who were detained were sent back to Sudan on the 18th of July, the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration in eastern Libya said in a statement.
The statement also included that some of deportees suffered for AIDS and hepatitis diseases. Without further expansion, it stated, others were extradited for criminal convictions or “security reasons.”
The deportation was carried out as part of a broader effort to curb migrant trafficking in eastern Libya, dominated by military commander Khalifa Hifter.
On the week beginning 7th of July, a boat carrying 80 Europe- bound migrants was intercepted by a coast guard in Eastern Libya.
The crackdown involves raids on trafficking hubs across eastern and southern Libya. An incursion that took place earlier this month freed 104 Sudanese migrants, including children and Women, who were held in a trafficking warehouse in Ajdabiya, about 480 miles from the Capital, Tripoli, according to town security authorities.
In recent years, Libya has become a transit point for those fleeing wars and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, to seek a better life in Europe. For over a decade, human traffickers have benefitted from the instability, smuggling migrants across Libya’s borders with six nations, including Sudan, Egypt, Niger, Chad, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Libya has endured years of instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew and killed leader Muammar Gaddafi. The oil rich country has been divided between split governments in the east and west, each aligned with different militias and foreign allies.
After the conflict started in Sudan with tension between the Sudanese military and a paramilitary group, in April 2023, thousands of Sudanese fled to Libya.
According to the U.N.’s International Organisation for Migration, there are more than 240,000 Sudanese migrants who live in Libya.
Africanews, Maghrebi.org
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