The Address | Benghazi – Libya
TRIPOLI – A total of 149 Africans in Libya were evacuated to Italy on Thursday, but more states must help people escape deteriorating conditions in Tripoli after two months of fighting, the United Nations refugee agency said.
The 149 refugees and asylum-seekers flown to Rome, many of them malnourished and needing medical treatment after detention in Tripoli, are from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.
The group included 65 children, 13 of them babies under a year old, it said. They follow 62 Syrians and Africans evacuated earlier this week to Timisoara, Romania, where they are receiving treatment before going to Norway, it said.
More than 1,000 refugees and migrants have been evacuated or resettled out of Libya so far this year. Around 1,200 others were returned to the North African country by the Libyan Coast Guard in May alone after being rescued or intercepted while attempting to flee by boat, it added.
🚨 Happening now: UNHCR ✈ evacuated 149 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers to safety from Libya 🇱🇾 to Italy 🇮🇹.
The evacuees are from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. They include 65 children, 13 of them below a year in age.
More info 👇https://t.co/W2nKnDKWMz pic.twitter.com/V22nptAOgT
— UNHCR Libya (@UNHCRLibya) May 30, 2019
