Over a hundred Gambian migrants sent home from Libya; UK's DFID sends an audit team to Banjul

Gambian migrants returning home from Libya 

Euronews is reporting that over one hundred illegal immigrants from Libya have been sent home by the United Nations International Organization for Migrants (IOM). 

According to Euronews, " the Gambian migrants left Misrata airport on a one-way flight back to The Gambia in a bid to ease severe overcrowding in Libya's detention centers."

The population in the detention centers has risen dramatically this year as a result of the increase in banditry and roving armed militia resulting in the effective shutting down the boat route to Italy.

IOM has stepped up its evacuation of migrants evacuating over 1,500 migrants in the final months of 2017. 

It is believed that the Libyan authorities decided to step of the deportation of migrants as a result of the recent CNN report of African migrants being sold as slaves in slave markets around the country that is under the control of numerous armed factions.

In a related development, we've come to learn that The British aid agency, DFID,  has sent a team to Banjul to conduct an audit of the programs they are funding there.   We are told that the outcome of the audit exercise will be shared across agencies, including the European Union.

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