Somali migrants in Libya live in terrible conditions despite the desire to take perilous journey to Europe, officials confirmed on Saturday.
Every year, hundreds of Somali migrants try to cross the Sahara desert and the chaotic North African country, Libya but fall in wrong hands and are taken captive for thousands of ransom.
Somalia’s ambassador to Benelux and EU, Ali Said Fiqi who briefed the Upper House on Somali migrants in the war-torn Libya said Somali Nationals jailed or held in that country face grim life conditions.
Fiqi pointed out the migrants are tortured and beaten by Smugglers in collaboration with Somalis, Sudanese and Eritrean mercenaries.
The ambassador noted that the dozens of migrants, mostly women in Libya turned down the voluntary repatriation after they held talks with delegates dispatched by Somali government late last year.
“At least 40 Somali women who are in Libya Jails have refused our plans to return them to their country,” said Fiqi.
The envoy confirmed that 48 people were returned to Somalia through the voluntary repatriation Programme which was jointly coordinated by UNHCR and IOM.
He called on the Federal Government of Somalia and Somali people especially the parents to avert youth from illegal migration.
“I urge the federal government and the public especially the parents to take the responsibility to prevent the nationals from migration and to resolve all the factors that influence them flee their motherland,” he called.
The government of Somalia has sent a delegation to the Libyan capital Tripoli to secure a safe return of Somalis trapped in that country.
The delegation was led by the Somali Ambassador to the European Union Dr. Ali Said Faqi.
Also part of the delegation which is housed at the Somali Embassy in Libya was the Commissioner of Refugees and IDPs Maryan.
This repatriation came months after President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo ordered the then Foreign Affairs minister Yusuf Garad to facilitate the repatriation of hundreds of Somali migrants allegedly enslaved in Libya following shocking reports of slavery in the country.
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