Back home to avoid abuse

Hundreds of migrants over the last weeks of December were helped by IOM to leave detention centers in Libya and return to their home countries including Nigeria, Guinea, Mali and Sudan on charter flights.''All the migrants volunteered to be returned home by IOM, rather than face an uncertain future, including lengthy periods in detention with the potential for abuse from traffickers and smugglers in Libya. It is not known how many suffered abuse while in detention or while en route,"stressed the UN agency. It added that, ''over 6,238 migrants have returned to their countries of origin since the evacuation phase started on 28 November''. Once they arrived home, the migrants received food, travel kits, psychological assistance and about 50 euros in cash for immediate expenses including traveling and clothing.

 'This journey is indeed a suicide mission'

John Nwaka, 28, a computer engineer, is among migrants repatriated to Nigeria thanks to the IOM program. He had left Imo State on June 23, 2017 with the objective of reaching Europe but did not make it beyond Libya. ''I spent five days in the desert where I had to drink somebody's urine in order to survive'', he told the UN agency. Out of the 104 migrants who started the journey with him only 81 made it to Libya. ''This journey is indeed a suicide mission'', he said. IOM cooperates with the government in order to provide medical support to migrants repatriated to Nigeria, temporary housing and help in re-establishing contact with family members and minors. ''Once they are back in their communities, returnees are provided with reintegration support, which includes individual, collective and community-based components'', said IOM. As of December 29, IOM had ''identified 432,574 migrants in Libya, mainly in the Tripoli, Misrata and Almargeb regions, and estimates the number of migrants to be more than 700,000 and up to 1 million''.