Moroccan authorities announced on Saturday the launch of a third and final campaign to repatriate stranded nationals in Libya, which includes 338 people.
The nationals will be moved “by two Libyan Airlines + African Airlines” planes to Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, the agency said in a statement.
The operation began on Friday but did not specify when the 338 Moroccans would arrive in the country, the statement said.
“Once they return, the nationals will be transported” via private buses to their cities of residence, with good conditions for reception by a nutritionist and a multidisciplinary medical staff, “he said.
These illegal immigrants wanted to go to Europe via Libya but were hanged in the hands of human trafficking networks or stranded in immigration detention centers.
Two previous operations in August and December allowed the repatriation of 435 Moroccans who had been held in Zawra in northwestern Libya.
Rabat decided to speed up the process of evacuating its nationals after the scandal sparked by images of the sale of migrants in Libya, which led to agreement in late November between nine European and African countries to carry out “emergency evacuations.”
Since the overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011, Libya has been facing a complex transitional crisis, punctuated by permanent rivalries between armed factions, political officials and a continuing lack of security amid the collapse of the oil-rich country’s economy.
