Fifteen Malian migrants rescued at sea in mid-June by a Spanish
fishing vessel will be flying home tomorrow after the Libyan
government asked IOM to assist them in returning to their home
country.



The Malians told IOM staff in interviews after they had been taken
to the Fellah reception centre in Tripoli that they were part of a
group of 26 people who had left for Europe on a small boat from
Côte D’Ivoire at the end of May.



Each one, they claim, had paid about USD 1,200 for the boat
journey. However, they had quickly run out of fuel, food and water
supplies. They had been at sea for 15 days when the crew of the
‘Nuestra Madre de Loreto’ had come to their aid. One of
the migrants, a Ghanaian according to the Malians, drowned while
trying to reach the fishing vessel.



After three days, the migrants were taken to Libyan shores after
the government agreed to let them land.



Among the 15 Malian migrants being helped by IOM through a European
Commission and Italian funded programme to provide assistance to
stranded migrants in Libya, some had left their home as long ago as
2004 and had been doing odd jobs to save up the money to pay
smugglers for the boat journey.

For further information, please contact

Michele Bombassei

IOM Tripoli

Tel: +218 21 477 7838

Email: "mailto:mbombassei@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">mbombassei@iom.int