121 African migrants rescued off Libyan shores

CAIRO - 31 July 2020: Libya's navy said on Friday that it has rescued 121 African migrants who were heading to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.

The spokesman for the Libyan Navy said the migrants were picked up in waters by the Libyan coastal guards. This comes within the state’s humanitarian and sovereignty efforts to protect the Libyan shores and provide rescue services.

Despite unabated violence in Libya since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi's regime in 2011, the country remains an important transit point for migrants fleeing instability in other parts of Africa and the Middle East and seeking to reach Europe.

In Feb. the UN refugee agency said that the total number of migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard in the past month rose 121 percent from the same period last year, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The UNHCR said in January alone, it registered 1,040 refugees and migrants the coast guard stopped and brought back to Libyan shores, a dramatic increase from the 469 rescued that month the year before.

The UNHCR classified the population as 70 percent men, 18 percent women and 12 percent children.