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EU funds centre to help illegal migrants in Libya

10 Mar 2008 13:22:27 GMT
Source: Reuters

TRIPOLI, March 10 (Reuters) - Migrants preparing to set out on perilous sea journeys in search of work in Europe will be warned of the dangers and offered help to return home at a centre due to open in Libya this week.

The Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Centre in Tripoli, part-funded by the European Union and the government of Italy, will help migrants find a new livelihood back home, said Laurence Hart, the International Organization For Migration's (IOM) chief of mission in Libya.

"It will be an open centre where migrants can enquire about the possible dangers of migration and we can sensitize them to those dangers," Hart said.

The centre, due to open on Wednesday, would also offer temporary accommodation for migrants who have no ties to their national communities in Libya and cannot support themselves.

Libya said in January it had begun deporting illegal migrants, a community of up to 2 million who were welcomed to the oil-exporting desert country in the 1990s for their cheap labour but are now blamed for taking work from jobless Libyans.

Most are trying to reach Europe where they might find a job and send some money home to support impoverished families.

Libya is also a transit point for refugees from violence in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

Southern European countries are in need of cheap labour but their governments have come under pressure to stem arrivals of illegal immigrants and boosted security to keep them out.

Migrant support groups accuse the EU of pressing Maghreb governments to expel the migrants and failing to produce promised aid to help them find alternative livelihoods.

Last year, nearly 20,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat from north Africa, while at least 471 were reported dead or missing, according to United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.

Hart said the opening of the centre in Libya was "an important breakthrough" and the IOM hoped to work with Libyan associations to offer migrants job training and other benefits.

Amnesty International has said Libya's plan for mass deportations was forbidden under international law and that some of those expelled are refugees who risk torture back home.

Libya says the decision to deport the migrants is an internal measure that will be carried out in a civilised way.

The IOM said there had been no reports of mass expulsions for now. A Libyan government official told Reuters the plan was still under way but unregistered migrants were being given more time to complete legal procedures.

"We need foreign workers to have contracts so they can get access to insurance and other benefits," the official said. (Reporting by Salah Sarrar; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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