Libya - IOM has repatriated 23 stranded Burkina Faso migrants – 21 men, and a woman and her child – from Libya to Burkina Faso via Tunisia.

The migrants are part of a group of 258 Burkinabe stranded in Libya whom IOM expects to repatriate in the next two months. The remainder of the group is now staying in a shelter in Tripoli organized by the Burkina Faso embassy and IOM is working with the embassy to secure their travel documents.

The ongoing repatriation is being organized in close coordination with the Libyan Interior Ministry’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM). Funding is provided by IOM’s project: Prevention and management of irregular migration flows from the Sahara Desert to Mediterranean Sea (SAHMED).

Three of the first group of 23 will be supported with IOM reintegration assistance after they arrive home. They include a single mother and her child, and a migrant who was shot and injured during his stay in Libya.

IOM will also pay for onward transport for the group from the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, to their final destinations.

 IOM has helped almost 200,000 stranded migrants to leave Libya since violence erupted there in 2011. It is a complex process, according to IOM Libya Chief of Mission Othman Belbeisi.

“The continuing violence hinders IOM’s presence on the ground. In addition many stranded migrants no longer have their original travel documents,” he notes.

Over 1.2 million third country nationals from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are believed to still be living in Libya. Some 50,000 are in urgent need of assistance and many wish to return to their home countries.

Other repatriations last week included four Malians, among them a single mother with two children, and an elderly person. They were the first in a group of 345 stranded Malians whom IOM also expects to repatriate via Tunisia in the next two months.

IOM Libya also repatriated a stranded Kenyan woman from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, in close coordination with the Kenyan Embassy in Cairo and the Libyan Red Crescent.

For further information, please contact Othman Belbeisi at IOM Libya, Tel +216 29 600389, Email: obelbeisi@iom.int