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Despite continuing efforts of the Federal Government to evacuate stranded Nigerians from Libya, efforts which have been on since 2016 with over 2000 Nigerians assisted back home, more Nigerians still throng the North African country, Daily Trust can report.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations humanitarian agency, has been collaborating with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other agencies of government to return Nigerians back home.

From 2006 till date, no fewer than 42 trips have been carried out to bring back the stranded thousands of Nigerians, with virtually all of them recounting horrible experiences in Libyan detention facilities.

Most of them spent months and years in detention before help came to them while some died in the process, according to accounts narrated by the returnees.

The latest set of Nigerians evacuated from Libya arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) cargo terminal on Thursday with 128 making the trip. Six of them had medical cases with one having three gunshot wounds and was brought out from the airplane with a stretcher.

But the horrible tales have not helped to dissuade people from embarking on the trip.

An IOM official who spoke with our correspondent, said, More people are still going to Libya from Nigeria. They embark on the dangerous trip through the desert hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea to proceed to Europe. I dont know what they are doing in Libya because the country is battling with its internal security challenges. There are these militia groups involved in organized crimes against undocumented immigrants. And Libya at the moment is facing disintegration threat. When you say you are going there for greener pastures, can you achieve anything meaningful in that direction?

But a retired Assistant Controller General of Immigration, Alhaji AbdulMumeen Abdulmalik who spoke to our correspondent said Nigerians would continue to leave the country unless the government tackled the economic recession and lack of jobs.

People go outside the country to seek economic opportunities that are lacking here, Abdulmalik said.

The Zonal Coordinator of NEMA in the South West, Alhaji Sulaiman Yakubu who received the latest returnees on behalf of the Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, said the agency had stepped up enlightenment campaign on the risk of travelling to Libya.

We are also telling the youths that the Federal Government has put in place a lot of initiatives to empower the youths. We have the YouWin programme, we have the N-Power programme and others, Yakubu said.

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Despite massive repatriation, Nigerians still troop to Libya - Daily Trust

Libyas biggest oil field has reduced crude production by more than 30 percent in recent days and the Zueitina export terminal ceased loadings over the weekend, throwing the OPEC countrys output back on a downward spiral.

Output at the Sharara field was down to 200,000 barrels a day on Sunday, compared with 300,000 barrels a day about a week ago, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Workers were being kept from certain areas for their own safety after two company vehicles were stolen at gunpoint, the person said. Zueitina port ceased loading on Saturday after employees demanded better working conditions, according to Merhi Abridan, head of the workers union.

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Libyas crude output and exports reached a three-year high last month as fighting among armed militias abated and leaders of the countrys rival administrations agreed in principle on steps to unite the nation. Production had been on the decline for years due to clashes between armed groups and closures of fields. Libya was exempted from production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because of the instability.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. marker, was unchanged at $48.82 a barrel at 12:25 p.m. Singapore time. Brent crude, the benchmark for more than half the worlds oil, fell 7 cents to $52.03 a barrel.

An official for Libyas state-run National Oil Corp., which operates Sharara in a joint venture, wasnt available for comment. The field has experienced several brief shutdowns caused by different groups.It was closed for two days in June due to a protest by workers there. Pumping was interrupted for hours last week after armed protesters shut some facilities, the NOC said at the time.

The countrys crude production may be further hampered by the port halt. Zueitina is the export terminal of Zueitina Oil Co., a joint venture between NOC, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Vienna-based OMV AG, according to its website. Zueitina exports an average of six crude cargoes a month, each 600,000 to 630,000 barrels, according to Abridan, the union head.

Employees are demanding that Zueitina Oil and NOC pay 20 months of delayed salary, Abridan said by phone Saturday. They also want health insurance, annual leave, overtime and more port maintenance. Workers will not receive a tanker due to arrive at the port on Aug. 19 if their demands arent met, he said.

In 2015, Libyas NOC declared force majeure at Zueitina and said the port was closed for all exports due to a deteriorating security situation.Force majeure, a legal status protecting a party from liability if it cant fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, was lifted. Force majeure was lifted in November.

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Libyan Oil Supplies Disrupted by Security Threats, Shut Port ... - Bloomberg

Updated / Sunday, 13 Aug 2017 11:24

German aid group Sea Eye has said it is suspending its migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, citing security concerns after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

The announcement comes a day after Doctors Without Borders (Mdecins Sans Frontires) said it was halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

In a statement, Sea Eye said it was with "a heavy heart" that it had decided to follow suit following the Libyan government's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

Tensions have been on the rise since the Libyan navy on Thursday ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal search and rescue zone, a measure it said was specifically aimed at non-governmental groups.

Libyan authorities have accused charities of aiding human smugglers with their rescues at sea, hampering efforts to crack down on the illegal migration route.

Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years, the vast majority setting sail from Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers.

More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

Charity boats have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year against less than 1% in 2014.

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, has also moved to rein in NGOs helping the multinational search and rescue operation by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

Sea Eye said it would continue to monitor the "changed security situation" off the Libyan coast.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Mr Buschheuer warned.

Six years since a revolution that toppled long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting the rescue operations, and Sea Eye says it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016.

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German NGO halts migrant rescue operation off Libya - RTE.ie

MOSCOW Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar was due to arrive in Moscow on Saturday ahead of a meeting with Russia's foreign minister, RIA news agency reported, citing a Russian negotiator.

UNITED NATIONS United Nations children agency UNICEF warned on Wednesday that more than half a million children in Libya need help and called on warring parties to end the violence and negotiate a political solution to the crisis.

DUBAI/SINGAPORE Saudi Arabia will cut crude oil allocations to its customers worldwide in September by at least 520,000 barrels per day, an industry source said on Tuesday, as the top oil exporter makes good on its pledge to help rein in a global supply glut.

BENGHAZI, Libya/TUNIS Residents of Derna in east Libya say they are facing critical shortages after Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) tightened its longstanding siege around the city last week.

BENGHAZI, Libya A blast hit worshippers leaving a mosque in the east Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, apparently targeting a key tribal ally of eastern based commander Khalifa Haftar for a second time, security and medical officials said.

(In this August 2nd story, corrects para 3 to show boat has not been moved from Lampedusa)

ROME Italy began a limited naval mission on Wednesday to help Libya's coastguard curb migrant flows, which have become a source of political friction before national elections expected early next year.

BENGHAZI, Libya A fighter jet from eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army was shot down in Dahr Al-Hamer district in Derna and its two crew detained, an air force spokesman said on Saturday.

BRUSSELS The European Union gave 46 million euros ($54 million) to Italy on Friday to help it protect Libya's northern and southern borders, part of the bloc's efforts to stem arrival of African migrants across the Mediterranean.

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Libya | Reuters

Doctors Without Borders said Saturday that it is temporarily suspending the activity of its rescue ship due to alleged threats from Libya's coast guard, which has become more aggressive in patrolling the coasts where human traffickers launch boats crowded with migrants desperate to reach Europe.

The humanitarian group said the rescue coordination center operated by Italy's coast guard had informed it Friday that the Libyan threats pose a security risk. The group added that Libyan authorities declared their own rescue area, extending into international waters, the same day.

Doctors Without Borders says its medical crew will keep working from a ship operated by another aid group while its vessel, Prudence, is not involved in migrant rescues.

The Italian government agreed last month to dispatch a naval mission to assist the Libyan coast guard with anti-smuggler patrols. Hundreds of thousands of rescued asylum-seekers, many of them fleeing poverty in Africa, have been brought to safety in Italian ports in recent years.

The government also has pressured rescue groups to sign on to rules that would forbid them from entering Libyan waters to save migrants without specific authorization and require them to agree that armed Italian judicial authorities may board their ships.

Italy is requiring groups operating rescue ships to subscribe to the rules or risk not being allowed to dock in Italian ports. Doctors Without Borders has refused to endorse the rules, while some other humanitarian groups have given their approval.

Critics of the new policies say they could put lives at risk by delaying rescues in Libyan waters. They also contend that if the Libyan coast guard blocks smugglers' boats, migrants will be returned to inhumane conditions, including beatings and forced labor, in Libyan detention centers.

"If humanitarian ships are pushed out of the Mediterranean, there will be fewer ships ready to aid persons before they drown," Doctors Without Borders Italy President Loris De Filippi said in a statement. "And whoever doesn't drown will be intercepted and brought back to Libya, which we know to be a place of absent legality, arbitrary detention and extreme violence."

A Spanish humanitarian group, Proactiva Open Arms, said the Libyan coast guard ordered its rescue ship to move north and fired warning shots last week when the vessel was involved in search-and-rescue work outside of Libyan territory.

Humanitarian groups have had ships monitoring the Mediterranean Sea outside of Libya's territorial waters to help rescue migrants from smugglers' boats in distress. The Italian coast guard coordinates the rescues, including those conducted by naval vessels from other European countries.

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Doctor Without Borders suspends rescue ship off Libya over security concerns - Los Angeles Times