CAIRO – A total of 125 young people bound for Europe were rescued at sea this week through lithroughan’s government off the Mediterranean coast, the United Nations child coverage firm said Friday, adding that the maximum was taken to detention centres.
The children, fleeing war and poverty in the dangerous direction of the sea towards Europe, included 114 unaccompanied minors, UNICEF said in a statement.
“Most rescued are sent to overcrowded detention centres in Libya in incredibly complicated situations with limited or limited access to water and fitness services. About 1,100 young people are in these centres,” it reads.
UNICEF has suggested to the Libyan government all young people and end the detention of migrants.
In the years following the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew and killed former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, war-torn Libya has the main transit point for migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East.
“The central Mediterranean remains one of the deadliest and most damaging migration routes in the world,” UNICEF said, adding that at least 350 people, coupled with young people and women, have drowned or disappeared in the Mediterranean since January.
Last week, 130 migrants bound for Europe disappeared in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya in the deadliest shipwreck since the beginning of the year.
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