Nigerians were among 324 migrants Libyan coastguards picked up yesterday trying to leave the North African country on board two rubber boats.
Coastguard spokesman Ayoub Qassem said in a statement that the migrants intercepted about seven miles off the western town of Zuwara yesterday included 35 women and 16 children. They were mostly from four sub-Saharan countries: Chad, Nigeria, Mali, Ivory Coast.
“There are some others from Tunisia, Pakistan and Morocco. There are also 32 persons including eight women and six children from Libya, and three families among them,” he said.
The top three nationalities declared by migrants arriving in Italy are Eritrean, Tunisian and Pakistani, followed by Nigerian and Libyan. Libya’s western coastline is the main departure point for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea to seek better lives. Most are from sub-Saharan Africa, though recently more Tunisians and Libyans have been trying to cross.
The number of migrants crossing from Libya has dropped since July as Libyan factions and authorities under pressure from Italy and the European Union began to block departures, especially from the smuggling hub of Sabratha.
But they have continued from the shoreline east of the capital, Tripoli, and dozens are thought to have died after a boat sank off Zuwara earlier this month. Zuwara was itself a major migrant smuggling hub until 2015, when there was a local backlash against smuggling after a boat thought to be carrying several hundred migrants sank. So far this year, just over 3,500 migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya, 62 percent fewer than during the same period last year, according to Italian interior ministry statistics.
Comments
Post a Comment