Libya’s Immigration Control Department in Benghazi announced the deportation of 95 illegal immigrants to Egypt on Wednesday, reported CTGN Africa.
The department said the immigrants who have been deported had some infectious diseases. They were sent by buses through the Egyptian border.
Earlier this week, the department deported another batch of more than 100 illegal immigrants to Nigeria and Egypt.
On Sunday, the International Organization for Migration said that there are more than 650,000 illegal immigrants in Libya, of whom about 6,000, including women and children, are being held in detention centres.
Libya has been mired in insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Taking advantage of the situation, thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, chose to cross the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe from Libya.
Almost all the detention shelters in Libya are now home to thousands of migrants who were either rescued at sea or arrested by the Libyan security services despite international calls to close those centres.
In related news, the Libyan navy said 90 illegal immigrants were rescued off the country’s western coast on Wednesday.
“After a very difficult operation because of sea disturbance, a search and rescue coast guards patrol rescued 90 illegal immigrants, including seven women two of whom are pregnant,” Ayob Qassem, navy spokesman, told Xinhua.
Qassem said the immigrants, mostly Somalians, were rescued 95 miles (153 km) off the coast of the city of Khoms which is located some 120 km east of the capital Tripoli.
Nearly 7,000 illegal immigrants have been rescued off the country’s coast this year, according to the Libyan navy.
Libya is currently in the middle of a war as forces loyal to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take the capital Tripoli from the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in April this year.
