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Africa North
UN assisting thousands of migrants stranded in Libyan smuggling hub, migrants drown off Tunisia
2017-10-10
[AlAhram] The UN migration agency said on Monday it was trying to provide assistance to large numbers of migrants colonists who had been held in the smuggling hub of Sabratha as rival factions battled for control of the city.

At least 4,000 migrants colonists, including pregnant women, newborn babies and unaccompanied children, have been transferred from informal camps and dormitories to a hangar in the city since the festivities ended on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

Sabratha has been the most common point of departure for mostly sub-Saharan African migrants colonists trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat from Libya.

But the number of crossings dropped sharply in July after an gang struck a deal with officials from the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
 to block departures, under pressure from Italia and other European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
 member states.

That set off three weeks of fighting among rival factions which ended with the withdrawal of the gang. The migrants colonists who have since been rounded up were being held at sites that the group had controlled, local officials said.

"We are seriously concerned by the large number of migrants colonists caught up in recent developments in Sabratha," Othman Belbeisi, IOM Libya Chief of Mission, said in a statement.

Some migrants colonists are being sent on to detention centres elsewhere in western Libya that are nominally under the control of the Tripoli government.

IOM officials say those centres, which were housing some 5,000 migrants colonists, risk being overwhelmed by the new arrivals. Conditions in the centres are often dire and abuse widespread.

"Alternatives to detention must be found for migrants colonists in Libya. In the meantime, IOM continues to provide direct humanitarian, health and psychosocial assistance to meet the urgent needs of the thousands of migrants colonists being affected," Belbeisi said.

Local sources have previously said that an estimated 10,000 migrants colonists were being held in the Sabratha area.

The head of Sabratha's department for countering illegal migration told Rooters on Saturday that help was urgently needed as some migrants colonists had received no food or water for six days.

At Least 8 Migrants Drown as Boat Collides with Tunisia Navy Vessel

[AnNahar] At least eight migrants colonists have drowned after their boat sank following a crash with a Tunisian navy vessel in the Mediterranean, the defense ministry said Monday.

Spokesman Belhassen Oueslati told the AFP news agency that eight bodies were found and 38 people rescued after the unidentified boat "collided with a military vessel" Sunday evening when it was approached some 54 kilometers (33 miles) off the islands of Kerkennah.

Search operations to find any more missing people were "still ongoing," he said.

Several Italian media outlets reported that there were some 70 migrants colonists on board the boat which sank and that it had set off from the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax.

The collision happened in a stretch of sea that is meant to be patrolled by search and rescue crews from Malta.

The Maltese coastguard told AFP that it had been informed of a crash between two vessels and had sent help, but did not give any more details.

There has been an uptick since the summer in the number of migrants colonists trying to make the perilous sea crossing to Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
from Tunisia, with small vessels heading to the Italian islands of Sicily and Lampedusa.
Posted by:trailing wife

#1  I'd say one or more of the European powers should recolonize Libya with all of the force necessary to get the job done. But with the EU the way it is I think we all know that will never happen. The way they act I suspect instability in Libya and subsequent migration was part of the EU plan all along.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-10-10 12:53  

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