Some 119 vulnerable refugees evacuated from Libya landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on Tuesday (July 30). They included 90 men, 18 women travelling alone and eight families from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said.

Tuesday's was the third flight carried out as part of a protocol signed in December 2023 by the Italian ministries of interior and foreign affairs, UNHCR, Arci, the Community of Sant'Egidio, the Federation of Evangelical Churches and the National Institute of Health, migration and poverty INMP.

Protocol for evacuation of 1,500 refugees from Libya in three years

The protocol provides for the evacuation to Italy of 1,500 refugees from Libya over the course of three years. It renews the commitment first undertaken by Italy in 2017, which has already allowed 1,509 people to travel from Libya to Italy through mechanisms of evacuation or humanitarian corridors.

The beneficiaries of these channels are people who are forced to flee their country due to war and violence and who are temporarily in Libya.

Among them are children, women who have been trafficked, people who have survived violence and torture and people with grave health conditions who have been selected by UNHCR.

Also read: 191 Afghan refugees arrive in Italy with humanitarian corridors

Refugees to be hosted in SAI centres, ARCI shelters

After their arrival, 102 people will stay in centres that are part of the Hosting and Integration System SAI, while the remaining 17 will go to shelters managed by the ARCI association.

Since 2017, the UN Refugee Agency has evacuated or resettled to Italy from Libya 1,368 refugees and asylum seekers.

UNHCR estimates that in 2024, globally, over 2.4 million refugees will need resettlement -- up 36 percent compared to 2022 when the issue concerned 1.47 million people.

Regular and safe pathways, including emergency evacuations, humanitarian corridors, resettlements and family reunifications allow refugees to rebuild their future in dignity, without being forced to undertake dangerous journeys organized by traffickers.

At the same time, they are a tangible sign of solidarity towards low and medium-income countries that host 75 percent of refugees worldwide.

Also read: Syrian refugees from Lebanon arrive in Italy with Humanitarian Corridors