On Saturday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Libya announced that a total of 279 Libyan migrants have been intercepted off the country’s Mediterranean coast and returned them to detention centres in Tripoli.
In a statement, the UNHCR said that the increasing number of migrants from Libya is alarming and shows the scale of despair suffered by many refugees and migrants.
Libya is a major transit point for migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East for the relative safety of Europe.
Most migrants make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in ill-equipped and unsafe rubber boats.
The IOM said last month that its estimated death toll among migrants who have tried to cross the sea since 2014 had surpassed 20,000.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, major maritime rescue charities such as Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch have suspended migrant rescue operations.
Travel disruptions have also forced the UN’s refugee and migration agencies to halt their resettlement flights for the most vulnerable people.
The EU has coordinated with the coastguard and other Libyan forces to stop the flow of migrants.
However, human rights groups say those efforts have left migrants at the mercy of brutal armed groups and confinement in squalid and overcrowded detention centres that lack adequate food and water.
The EU agreed this year to end an anti-migrant smuggling operation involving only surveillance aircraft.
It said it would send military ships to concentrate on upholding a widely flouted UN arms embargo on Libya.