Migrants who tried to cross the Mediterranean were brought back to Libya, U.N. says.
Pulbished on:Rome 27 May 2023 (Lana) A spokesman for the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said yesterday that nearly 500 migrants who tried to cross the central Mediterranean have been brought back to Libya, two days after charity groups lost contact with the boat carrying them.
Reuters quoted the spokesman, Flavio Di Giacomo, on Twitter: "Libya is an unsafe port where migrants should never be brought back, adding that there were 485 migrants docked in the Libyan port of Benghazi on Friday, and no further details were provided to IOM at this stage."
Reuters also quoted Alarm Phone, a group that picks up calls from migrant vessels in distress, as saying that it lost contact with the boat last Wednesday morning.
It indicated at that time that the boat was adrift, with no working engine, in high seas about 320 km north of Libya and more than 400 km away from Malta or Italy's southern island of Sicily.
=Lana=