Rome: A spokesman for the UN migration agency said that nearly 500 migrants who attempted to cross the central Mediterranean have been returned to Libya, two days after aid organisations lost contact with the boat carrying them. According to Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the UN's International Organisation for Migration, or IOM, Libya is an unsafe port and migrants should never be returned there. A different incident involved 27 migrants being illegally returned to Libya by an oil tanker, according to the German charity SOS Humanity. International humanitarian law prohibits the forcible return of migrants to nations where they may suffer severe mistreatment, and Libya has a long history of migrant abuse. Up from about 18,000 in the same period of 2022, there have been more than 47,000 landings so far this year.
