The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) said 150 migrants may have drowned in a ship wreck off the Libyan coast while another 150 were rescued by fishermen and returned to Libya by coast guards. The fate of these 150 is precarious, as Libya is presently in a war of supremacy.
The BBC reports that it is uncertain if the migrants were on one or two boats that left the Libyan town of al Khoms, ‘some 120km (74.5 miles) east of Tripoli.’ What is certain however, is that this number of probable deaths are 14 people short of the 164 that died in the first four months of the year.
The United nations have called on European governments to stop repatriating rescued migrants to Libya due to the appalling conditions the migrants are subjected to in detention/deportation camps. Survivors of the two air strikes on Tajoura detention camp, said they were coopted by one of the warring parties to clean ammunitions, which made them a target. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), have been running a voluntary return Programme since June 2018. The first batch of Nigerians who took advantage of the programme were 171. According to IOM 45,562 persons successfully crossed into Europe as at July— 8,000 by land and 37,000 plus through the Mediterranean. The organisation lists the number of dead or missing before now as 683.
France, Germany and six other European Union member states, recently signed a deal to share the swelling number of 45,000 asylum seekers.
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