The UN refugee agency will work to cut the number of migrants staying at an overcrowded transit center in Libya’s capital, a spokesman said Saturday.
Libya is a major waypoint for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to Europe.
Charlie Yaxley, an UNCHR spokesman, told The Associated Press that “the situation is very difficult, and we do not have the resources” as the center is at about twice its capacity, with some 1,200 migrants.
The UNCHR has asked those refugees not registered with the agency to leave the European Union-funded Gathering and Departure Facility, offering an assistance package that includes cash for an initial two months.
“You will not be considered for evacuation or resettlement if you stay at the GDF,” the agency warned the migrants, according to a document obtained by the AP.
It added that those seeking registration with the agency could only do so “outside” the facility.
The UNCHR said it would phase out food distribution for the unregistered migrants, including dozens of tuberculosis patients, from January 1.
Yaxley said the agency also offered to facilitate returning the migrants to their home country or to a country they previously registered as asylum-seekers.
Migrants however decried the move, fearing that they would be end up at detention centers or at the mercy of traffickers.
“The migrants are reluctant and have their concerns to leave the GDF,” one person seeking shelter at the facility said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The surrounding areas of Tripoli have been the scene of fighting after the Libyan National Army launched an operation to cleanse the capital of militias associated to the Government of National Accord in April.
The fighting has stalled in recent weeks, with both sides dug in and shelling one another along Tripoli's southern reaches. They have also carried out airstrikes and drone attacks.
In July, an airstrike hit a detention center for migrants outside Tripoli, killing more than 50 migrants held there.
After the airstrike, hundreds of former detainees made their way into the GDF, the agency said. They were followed by another group of around 400 people from Abu Salim detention center in late October, as well as up to 200 people from urban areas, the UNCHR said.
The gathering point, which was opened a year ago, has capacity for around 600 people.
“We hope that the GDF will be able to return to its original function as a transit facility for the most acutely vulnerable refugees, so we are able to evacuate them to safety,” said UNHCR’s Chief of Mission for Libya Jean-Paul Cavalieri.
There are some 40,000 refugees and asylum-seekers living in urban areas across Libya, some of whom are extremely vulnerable, face abuse in militia-run detention centers, and are in desperate need of support, according to the UN refugee agency.
