UN begins evacuating refugees from Libya

GENEVA: A group of vulnerable refugees from several African countries, who had been stuck in war-ravaged Libya, have been evacuated to Niger, the UN said on Sunday.

The UN refugee agency said the evacuation of 25 "extremely vulnerable refugees" from Libya on Saturday marked the first of its kind. The chaos-ridden country has long been a major transit hub for migrants trying to reach Europe, and many refugees and migrants have fallen prey to serious abuse there at the hands of human traffickers and others.

"We are taking people out of a very dangerous situation," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told AFP. The group evacuated on Saturday was made up of 15 women, six men and four children of Eritrean, Ethiopian and Sudanese nationalities, UNHCR said.

"All of them will be hosted in a guesthouse in Niamey until their resettlement applications are processed," Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation, said in a statement.

Extracting the refugees from Libya should make it easier for possible resettlement countries to evaluate their cases. Paris for instance said last month it would open centres in Niger and Chad to help identify people who might be granted asylum in France.

The UN agency has called for countries around the world to step up and offer desperately needed resettlement places to refugees stranded in 15 countries along the Central Mediterranean migration route.