TheCable

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, senior special assistant to the president on foreign affairs and diaspora, says 116 of the Nigerian migrants trapped in Libya slave camps would soon be repatriated.

In statement by Abdur-Rahman Balogun, her media aide, Dabiri-Erewa said the federal government and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have located the detention camps of the Nigerians and offered to bring those willing back home.

She said the Nigeria mission in Tripoli had traced the migrants to Osama detention centre, Zawiya, Libya.

According to her, while 116 Nigerian migrants have been processed online for repatriation, 24 of them insisted they must get to Europe.

She said the federal government moved to rescue the detained migrants after their plea for assistance through video clip from Libya on July 8.

In the video, the stranded Nigerians who veiled their faces said their final destination was Europe but were intercepted by the security agencies in Libya and locked up in dehumanising conditions.

The migrants said they were being “tortured to death”.

“We are dying here. Come and rescue us. Europe is our final destination but we are trapped in Libya subjecting us to inhuman treatment,” one of the Nigerians said in the video.

Dabiri-Erewa said 9,438 Nigerian migrants had so far been repatriated by the federal government and the IOM.

She gave assurance that President Muhammadu Buhari would continue to ensure that all stranded migrants willing to return home are brought back.

According to her, those that have been brought back are being profiled and enrolled in various technical and vocational training centres with relevant agencies and NGOs.

She appealed to Nigerian youth to avail themselves the opportunities in the country as against risking their lives to search for a non-existing and deadly greener pastures abroad.