A dingy full of illegal migrants of different nationalities were on Sunday morning rescued by coast guards off the Libyan city of Khoms, a spokesman of the country’s marine forces confirmed on Monday.
Spokesman Ayoub Kasem told the media that the rescue operation was able to pluck to safety 71 migrants north of Khoms city, 120 east of Tripoli.
The rescued migrants were all men and came from African and Arab countries, he said.
They included 27 from Sudan, 15 from Egypt, 3 from Palestine and 25 from Pakistan.
Meanwhile the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said in a statement Sunday that a group of 66 vulnerable refugees was evacuated from Libya to Rwanda last Thursday on a UNCHR flight.
They are the first to benefit from the Emergency Transit Mechanism recently agreed and set up by the government of Rwanda, UNCHR, the UN Refugee Agency and the African Union.
The statement added that the group included a baby born in Libyan detention just two months ago.
In total, 26 of the evacuees were refugee children, nearly all of them unaccompanied by a family member or parent.
According to UNSMIL the second evacuation flight is expected in the next few weeks.
It said the UNHCR continues its effort to get vulnerable refugees in Libya out of harm’s way and to safety, faster and increased evacuations and initiatives such as the Emergency Transit Mechanism, are urgently needed.
SS/as/APA