Another 116 people, including 20 women and seven minors, were intercepted on the night from Saturday to Sunday and also transferred to the capital.
A total of 370 migrants were intercepted during the weekend in Mediterranean waters off the coast of Libya and returned to this country despite being considered an “unsafe” place, reported the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNHCR ).
According to the source, 198 of them were intercepted early Saturday morning by patrols of the controversial Libyan Coast Guard when they drifted in two rubber boats and taken to the ports of Tripoli and Zawara, where they received first aid before being delivered to local militias to intern them in detention centers.
Another 116 people, including 20 women and seven minors, were intercepted on the night from Saturday to Sunday and also transferred to the capital.
All of them were traveling in an inflatable boat that had gone to sea, despite bad weather conditions, from the beaches of Zawara, one of the main centers of operations for the Libyan mafias that profit from smuggling people.
The last boat was intercepted on the morning of this Sunday, with 56 people on board, also from Zawara and disembarked in Tripoli, where members of UNHCR and the Red Crescent treated minor injuries and people with symptoms of hypothermia before handing them over to the militias.
Papal appeal
Pope Francis asked today that the international community reach a shared and lasting agreement to manage the migratory flows that arrive in Europe through the Mediterranean Sea and to put an end to the return of these people to unsafe countries.
“We need to put an end to the return of migrants to unsafe countries and give priority to rescuing human lives at sea, with planned rescue and disembarkation devices, guaranteeing their dignified living conditions, alternatives to detention, regular migrant journeys and asylum applications ”, he highlighted.
According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 26,000 people have been intercepted in Mediterranean waters and returned to Libya throughout this year, more than double that of last year.
About 1,100 more have died or are missing, up from about 900 drownings last year.
The ship Geo Barents, of the organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), is in the Mediterranean with 296 people on board, rescued in recent days, waiting for a country to authorize a port.
The same occurs with the Spanish ship Aita Mari, of Humanitarian Maritime Rescue (SMH), which rescued 105 migrants last Tuesday. (I)
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