The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced yesterday that it had assisted 167 stranded Nigerien migrants including 48 women, 40 children and 79 men, to return home to Niger from southern Libya on 1 November. The IOM charter flight was coordinated in close cooperation with the Libyan authorities, the Nigerien embassy in Tripoli, its consulate in Sabha, the Libyan Red Crescent in Sabha and IOM Niger. The flight departed from Taminhint airport, 30 kilometres from Sabha and 750 kilometres south of the capital Libyan Tripoli, and arrived in Niamey airport in Niger the same evening, the IOM said. The IOM said that it had interviewed the migrants before they departed and provided health checks to ensure that they were fit to travel.
