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The US Embassy in Libya announced that the Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), has implemented bilateral, regional, and global projects worth more than $225 million dollars in over 95 countries, including Libya, to address human trafficking and its drivers.
The US Embassy said in a statement on Wednesday that “corruption is one of the drivers of human trafficking. US-efforts to address both issues involve reducing the ability of human traffickers to use the U.S. & international financial systems to hide assets & launder their proceeds,” it added.
The TIP said that it has allocated $750,000 for Libya and Sub-Saharan African Countries from August 2021 to July 2024. The US Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) will implement the project.
“The project is supporting the expansion of CIJA’s operations into Libya, and select Sub-Saharan African countries to investigate the networks associated with the Islamic State’s organized exploitation of migrants and trafficking in persons,” the TIP said in a report.
“CIJA supports the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking offences by the Islamic State, and related terrorist organizations through the collection and preservation of evidence of trafficking of adults and children,” it concluded.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed that 24,684 migrants were intercepted in the Mediterranean, and returned to Libya in 2022.
The IOM stated that the number of migrants witnessed a decrease of 24% in 2021, at 32,425 migrants.
The UN body confirmed that it recorded 1,373 drowned or missing persons, during the past year. It announced that the Libyan Coast Guard had rescued 633 migrants off the coast of Libya, and returned them from 27 November to 3 December 2022.
It has also confirmed that it has “helped repatriate 60,000 migrants from Libya to their home countries over the past seven years, in a safe and dignified manner, through the Voluntary Humanitarian Return Program.”