Tripoli - August 22 - (Mediaage NG News) – A group of 161 Nigerians comprising 75 women and six children arrived Nigeria on Monday, having been repatriated from Tripoli, Libya as part of a voluntary UN-supported scheme, the AFP news agency reports.
They include those who had been held in detention facilities in the north African country. The Libyan Minister of Interior, Emad Al-Trabelsi said 102 of those repatriated had been stopped at the border between Libya and Tunisia.
Libya is a major but deadly migrant route for Africans seeking to illegally cross over to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea.
The AFP said an official at Nigeria’s embassy in Libya said the migrants had not been forced to return to home.
“We spoke to [them] and explained that migration is not bad… but you have to follow due process,” embassy adviser Samuel Okeri is quoted as saying.
“They are going back willingly. And as you can see, they are not sad but happy to go back to Nigeria. There is no place like home”, he said.