Libya’s eastern security authority has repatriated 602 migrants to Chad as part of a campaign focused on the “protection of homeland and border”, a spokesperson for the interior ministry’s agency tackling illegal migration said.

The spokesperson, Abdulmenam al-Ghomati, said those repatriated on Wednesday had been apprehended during recent security operations, along with others who had attempted to enter Libyan territory illegally. The migrants were taken by truck to the border with Chad in a process that took a day and a half.

Arrests across Haftar-held areas

Security forces apprehended the migrants in different cities and areas under the Libyan National Army of military commander Khalifa Haftar, which controls the east and large parts of the south of the country. Pictures from the agency’s media office in Benghazi showed pickup vehicles loaded with migrants in a remote area being taken towards the border.

Al-Ghomati confirmed that the campaign is continuing, in accordance with orders from the deputy commander-in-chief, Saddam Haftar, to raid and clear out homes rented by migrants within residential neighbourhoods.

Libya remains a major transit route

Libya, now split between rival authorities in the east and west, has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe via dangerous routes across the desert and over the Mediterranean since the toppling of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in an uprising in 2011.

The country’s 100 municipalities are thought to harbour well over 900,000 migrants, according to United Nations data collected in May and June.

Sources: Reuters | SRN News