Libya says 31,000 illegal immigrants sent home last year

Libya sent home 30,940 illegal immigrants last year at its own expense and is seeking one billion euros in aid to cope with the the flow of illegals, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"We calculate (we have) one million clandestine immigrants, which is some 20 percent of the total population," said interior ministry Colonel Abdel Monem Ayad.

"On our own, we cannot stand up to this scourge," he said on the sidelines of a workshop, organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on voluntary repatriation.

"The Europeans ask us to stop this flow of immigrants transiting our territory but we do not have the means to watch over more than 4,000 kilometres (2,485 miles) of land frontiers and a coastline of 1,700 kilometres," he said.

Official figures released by Tripoli say that in 2006, Libya repatriated 64,430 illegal immigrants at an estimated cost of four million euros.

Ayad said Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi had submitted Tripoli's request for the one billion euros aide during the Europe-Africa summit last December in Lisbon.
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