Hundreds of people over the past two to three months have paid to get locked up in Libyan detention centres in the hope of resettlement to Europe, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). "There are people who pay traffickers to go to detention centres, that is the reality today," Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR special envoy for the central Mediterranean, told reporters earlier this week in Brussels. Around 4,500 people are currently spread around some 19 detention centres in Libya. Of all its resettlements from Libya, the agency takes around 80 percent from people inside detention centres and the remainder from outside. "We would like to balance it very quickly to 50/50, so people don't think it is better to go to detention centres," he said.

Source: Libya Today December 06, 2019 08:15 UTC