ROME: Up to 10,000 people stranded in refugee camps and
detention centres in Libya could be relocated to Europe in 2018, the
Italian government said on Sunday.
The initiative would
be part of an attempt by EU countries to address the deteriorating
conditions in Libya, where thousands of people are held captive in
inhumane conditions.
“In 2018, up to 10,000 refugees will
be able to come to Europe without risk, through humanitarian
corridors,” Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in an interview
with the newspaper La Repubblica.
The announcement comes
after a group of 162 “vulnerable” people, from Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Somalia and Yemen, were evacuated from Libya and arrived by military
plane in Rome on Friday.
The group included single
mothers, unaccompanied children and handicapped people, and was the
first time refugees and migrants had been relocated directly to Europe
by the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).
About 400,000
migrants are in Libya, including roughly 36,000 children, the UN
children’s agency Unicef and the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM) said earlier this month.
In 2018, the IOM
aims to repatriate 30,000 migrants to their home countries as part of a
voluntary return programme. Around 15,000 have been sent back this
year.
“In accordance with the objectives of the
International Organisation for Migration, 30,000 migrants without right
to asylum will be able to be repatriated to their countries on a
voluntary basis,” in 2018, Minniti said.
“With the help
of the Libyan authorities, we have constructed a new management model on
the other side of the Mediterranean.” Libya has long been a transit hub
for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, but people smugglers have
stepped up their lucrative business since the chaos following the 2011
revolution.