165 female immigrants deported from Libya to Nigeria

Illegal immigrants wait to depart at a deportation office in Tripoli, Libya, on June 20, 2023. The Libyan Illegal Immigration Control Department on Tuesday deported 165 female illegal immigrants to their home country of Nigeria. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Illegal Immigration Control Department on Tuesday deported 165 female illegal immigrants to their home country of Nigeria.

"Some of them were arrested as they were begging on the streets and others were arrested during raids on criminal hideouts," the department's spokesman Haitham Belgasem told Xinhua, adding that more deportation flights would be arranged in the future.

The International Organization for Migration has said that a total of 7,477 illegal immigrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far this year.

Due to the insecurity and chaos in the country since the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, many immigrants, mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores via Libya.

A man distributes food to illegal immigrants at a deportation office in Tripoli, Libya, on June 20, 2023. The Libyan Illegal Immigration Control Department on Tuesday deported 165 female illegal immigrants to their home country of Nigeria. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)

Illegal immigrants get on a bus outside a deportation office in Tripoli, Libya, on June 20, 2023. The Libyan Illegal Immigration Control Department on Tuesday deported 165 female illegal immigrants to their home country of Nigeria. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)