TRIPOLI, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Wednesday that it had assisted 163 migrants to return to their home country, Bangladesh, from Libya this week.
"IOM's Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) Program continues to assist stranded and vulnerable migrants who request assistance to return from Libya to their home countries. This week, a flight to Bangladesh with 163 migrants was facilitated from Benghazi to Dhaka," IOM tweeted.
Ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, Libya has become a preferred point of departure for thousands of migrants who attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach European shores.
The Voluntary Humanitarian Return program, run by IOM, arranges the return of migrants stranded in Libya to their homeland.
According to IOM, the VHR Program has helped 80,000 migrants return to their countries of origin voluntarily from Libya since 2015.
