The European Union announced its support to Niger in finding durable solutions for asylum seekers and refugees, who were evacuated from Libya.
This will be done through a project implemented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that extends to 2024, according to a joint statement by the European Union and UNHCR, on Saturday.
The project aims to “provide protection for evacuated migrants from Libya, under the UNHCR’s Emergency Transit Mechanism.”
The project also supports “conducting evacuation flights from Libya to Niger, and access to be settled in third-country resettlement.”
“Our support for the Emergency Transit Mechanism is part of the tripartite agreement between the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations to provide humanitarian solutions to the problem of migrants and refugees in Libya,” said Salvador Franca, the EU Ambassador to Niger.
In February, the President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum stated that “the Libyan crisis is very delicate, and has serious repercussions on the region, due to the growing foreign interference in Libyan affairs.”
According to Radio France Internationale (RFI) Bazoum hailed the work accomplished by the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya, chaired by his Congolese counterpart, Denis Sassou Nguesso.
“I would like to celebrate the results already achieved because, just three days ago, a former Gaddafi security chief was released from prison in Libya. There are three other major personalities left,” he said, according to RFI.
“President Sassou-Nguesso is doing the work of persuasion necessary for these personalities to be released. This is a big step that will be taken in the context of reconciliation,” he said.
Bazoum believes that the solution to the Libyan problem “can only come from Africa and not from elsewhere.”
On the other hand, the International Organization for Migration in Libya (IOM) announced that 3,897 migrants were intercepted in the Mediterranean and returned to Libya, during 2023.
The IOM added that 236 migrants died at sea, while 174 people were missing. Among those intercepted were 99 children and 181 women.
