Another IOM Mission to Rescue Stranded Migrants from Misrata Underway as More Migrants Escape Libya
A sixth IOM mission to rescue stranded migrants from the war-torn
Libyan port city of Misrata is today underway from the eastern city
of Benghazi.
The IOM-chartered Red Star One is leaving Benghazi late this
morning carrying another 180 tons of humanitarian aid, including
food, water and 20 tons of nappies for babies. All the aid has been
donated by a Libyan businessman who has contributed the majority of
the aid IOM has delivered to Misrata on previous missions and who
wishes to remain anonymous.
When the boat arrives in Misrata, IOM will have successfully
delivered approximately 1,900 tons of vital humanitarian supplies
to a city in conflict for more than two months.
As on previous occasions, a medical team will be on board the
ship comprising Libyan doctors and nurses as well as staff from the
International Medical Corps. Some of the team will stay behind in
Misrata to relieve colleagues in hospitals there.
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This sixth IOM mission to Misrata aims to rescue as many
migrants as it possibly can. Since the start of the operation to
help thousands of stranded migrants camping out around Misrata's
port area with little to no shelter, food, clean water and
sanitation or health care for two months, IOM has rescued 5,512
people. Among those evacuated to Benghazi were several hundred
war-wounded Libyans and their family members.
However, IOM believes that there are still a few thousand
migrants who need to be helped, with the Organization still
receiving new information on groups of migrants in Misrata,
including women and families.
Heavy shelling of Misrata's port area earlier this week during
which some migrants were reported to have been killed and injured,
had led to many migrants fleeing the area. Port authorities told
IOM staff on the previous mission which concluded Thursday that
they expected the migrants to return to the port soon after.
Some of the migrants evacuated to Benghazi on that mission told
IOM staff that their life had been a nightmare for the past 66
days. Among them was a group of Egyptians who were living in the
town and who had made the dangerous 25km journey to the port
several times in seven days in a desperate bid to get on a boat,
aware that people were being killed by sniper fire if they stepped
out of their homes.
Barely believing they had made it safely out of Misrata, they
spoke of living without electricity, food, water and communications
and depending on the kindness of Libyan neighbours for
provisions.
The IOM-chartered Red Star One leaving today is due to arrive in
Misrata early Saturday if security conditions permit. Once safely
returned to Benghazi, migrants on board the ship will be taken by
IOM by road to Sallum on the Egyptian border. Since early March,
the Organization has safely evacuated 10,170 migrants from Benghazi
to Sallum, including those rescued from Misrata.
IOM's humanitarian evacuation programme out of Misrata is funded
by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civilian
Protection Office (ECHO), the US State Department's Bureau of
Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), Britain's Department for
International Development (DFID), Germany, Ireland and
Australia.
Elsewhere in Libya, IOM is continuing to rescue migrants
stranded in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Since late March, the
Organization has taken about 6,300 migrants from Egypt, Benin,
Sudan and Niger by bus from Tripoli to the Tunisian border point at
Ras Adjir from where IOM organizes their evacuation to their home
countries.
On Thursday, a group of Egyptian, Sudanese and a small number of
Nicaraguan migrants were evacuated from Tripoli on four buses.
"With our on-going operations in Misrata, Benghazi and Tripoli,
IOM is managing to reach difficult-to-access migrant populations
inside Libya. We are still looking into ways of accessing other
large groups of migrants stranded elsewhere, such as the 30,000
Chadians, many of them women and children, currently stuck in
Gatroun and in need of humanitarian assistance," says IOM Director
of Operations and Emergencies, Mohammed Abdiker.
Meanwhile, migrants continue to flee Libya in all directions.
The arrival on Wednesday of 2,584 migrants, mostly Nigerien, at an
IOM migrant reception and transit centre in the northern Nigerien
town of Dirkou, was the single largest daily influx since the start
of the crisis in February.
IOM staff in Dirkou report that the migrants arrived on 20
trucks, among them 43 women and 13 children.
"We are seeing growing numbers of families now coming through.
These migrants have been in Libya a long time and are only now
leaving because the situation has deteriorated so," says IOM's
chief of mission in Niger, Abibatou Wane. "We are also seeing a
significant number of unaccompanied minors. Earlier this week, we
helped 21 such children who had been living and working in Libya
without their families."
More than 58,720 migrants have now arrived in Niger from Libya,
the vast majority of them Nigeriens returning home.
In Chad, more than 17,400 mainly Chadian migrants have crossed
the border in trucks from Libya in recent days and weeks. IOM staff
in the northern town of Faya report that three fully loaded trucks
carrying returning migrants are arriving on a daily basis in the
town, with a similar number of people arriving in Kalait. Providing
assistance to the migrants who have largely arrived from the Libyan
towns of Sabha, Sirt, Benghazi, Kufra and Zawiya, is a major
challenge.
IOM is currently registering 2,100 migrants in Faya for urgent
onward transportation assistance. Staff report that the migrants
are arriving in a state of severe fatigue after making long and
arduous journeys across the desert.
Those registered will be taken by road or air to the capital,
Njdamena in the coming days, with 3,720 people having already being
assisted by IOM so far. An IOM team is also being deployed to
Kalait today, Friday, to register migrants arriving there.
About 637,500 people have fled Libya since the crisis began in
mid February, crossing into Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Sudan and
Tunisia with some of them putting their lives in great danger to
reach the shores of Italy and Malta.
Since the crisis began IOM has evacuated nearly 122,000 migrants
to their home countries with the support of various governments and
UNHCR. An estimated 7,400 migrants are still waiting in
Tunisia, Egypt and Niger for assistance to get back home
safely.
For further information, please contact:
Jean Philippe Chauzy
IOM Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 717 9361
+ 41 79 285 4366
E-mail:
"mailto:pchauzy@iom.int">pchauzy@iom.int
Jemini Pandya
Tel: + 41 22 717 9486
+ 41 79 217 3374
E-mail:
"mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int
or
Jumbe Omari Jumbe
Tel: + 41 22 717 9405
+ 41 79 812 7734
E-mail:
"mailto:jjumbe@iom.int">jjumbe@iom.int