Libya remains top priority for UN migration agency: Swing

GENEVA - 4 August 2017: The UN Migration Agency’s Director General William Lacy Swing returned to Tripoli earlier this week where he reiterated that Libya remains International Organization for Migration’s top priority.

In what was his second visit to Libya this year, Director General Swing, along with Vincent Houver, IOM Deputy Director of the Department of Operations and Emergencies, Othman Belbeisi, IOM Chief of Mission in Libya and other IOM Libya staff met with Prime Minister Fayez al Serraj, the IMO said in a press release.

The IOM delegation also met with several Government ministers, as well as representatives of the Libyan Coast Guard and the Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM).

"Libya remains IOM’s top priority and it is therefore important for me to be back in Tripoli so soon after my last visit at the end of March," said Director General Swing in Tripoli.

"The response from the Libyan authorities has been more than positive and IOM is fully committed to further support and collaborate closely with our Libyan counterparts," he added.

"This visit contributed to strengthening the way IOM plans and works together with governmental counterparts to ensure the delivery of tangible results in support of the Government’s strategic priorities," Belbeisi said following the visit.

Throughout the Tripoli mission, IOM advocated for the improvement of living conditions in the detention centers and alternatives to detention including open centers and safe spaces for women, children and other vulnerable migrants, registration of migrants following rescue-at-sea operations and the continuous technical cooperation to support local partners and Libyan officials.

In order to reach IOM’s goal to assist up to 12,000 stranded migrants with voluntary humanitarian return assistance in 2017, close cooperation with representatives of the migrants’ countries of origin is key. IOM Libya invited all diplomatic representatives for an open discussion on how to further facilitate consular procedures.