The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday that 57 illegal migrants have been released from a detention center in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
“The UNHCR helped to secure the release of 57 asylum-seekers from Ain Zara detention center, following their arrests in October during the Libyan security operations in Tripoli,” said the organisation in a statement.
Most of the migrants released from detention were from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan. They included unaccompanied children and people with medical issues. Most of them expressed their worries about the uncertain future because they had been displaced and had lost most of their belongings.
The UNHCR expressed gratitude to the Libyan authorities for their support in the releases, hoping for further releases of others remaining in detention.
Given the chaotic state of insecurity that plagued the country since the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, many illegal migrants mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores from Libya.
Rescued migrants end up inside overcrowded reception centers across Libya, despite repeated international calls to close those centres.