The evacuees, due to arrive in Benghazi later today, are
mainly migrants from Niger with others of Chadian, Ghanaian,
Nigerian, Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Yemeni nationality.
The 232 migrants, mostly young single males, have been living
in a Libyan Red Crescent camp where increasing numbers of migrants
have gathered. Congestion and rising tensions at the camp
necessitated the evacuation of the men during this 11th IOM rescue
mission to Misrata.
The 12th mission, due to evacuate migrants and severe medical
cases on 14th July, will prioritize families, particularly women
and children.
A rapid IOM assessment of the camp in Misrata during the
evacuation operation revealed an urgent need for additional tents
and hygiene supplies as well as improved cooking facilities. IOM is
approaching non-governmental organizations to work closely with the
Libyan Red Crescent and IOM in order to address these problems
quickly.
IOM staff heading this latest rescue operation say that upon the departure of the IOM-chartered boat from Misrata port, the pier area began to be bombarded but that the boat successfully managed to leave.
They also report on the lack of sufficient medical facilities
in Misrata and Benghazi itself to cope with the numbers of severely
wounded. The IOM-boat’s departure was delayed by several hours as a
steady stream of severely wounded patients was being transferred to
the pier for evacuation.
Nearly 7,900 people including migrants and wounded have now
been evacuated by IOM from Misrata to Benghazi since this operation
began in mid April.
IOM is also continuing its other evacuation operations from
inside Libya where migrants are being taken by road from Tripoli to
Ras Adjir on the Tunisian-Libyan border and from Benghazi to
Salloum on the Egyptian-Libyan border for eventual return to their
home countries.
Since last week, IOM has also evacuated close to 530 migrants,
mainly Chadians, by air from the southern Libyan city of Sebha to
Chad. Many hundreds more will be evacuated from Sebha and Gatroun
in the coming days and weeks.
Nearly 620,000 migrants have now fled the conflict in
Libya.
For further information, please contact Jemini Pandya, IOM
Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 217 3374 Email:
jpandya@iom.int
