LOC16:57
13:57 GMT
BRUSSELS, Dec 14 (KUNA) -- EU High Representative Federica Mogherini announced Thursday that 16,000 migrants have been able to voluntarily return from Libya to their home countries till now and an additional 15,000 will return from Libya by February next year.
"I would also like to announce today that EU makes available additional 100 million euro to support the work of IOM (International Organisation for Migration) and UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) on the ground to allow them continuing the operations on the ground," she told a press conference after a meeting of the joint EU-AU-UN Task Force on migration in Brussels.
The Task Force was set up in Abidjan in November and held its first meeting today in Brussels.
Mogherini met the African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Amira El Fadil, Director General of IOM, William Lacy Swing, and UNHCRآ’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Volker Turk and discussed the results of initiatives put in place and a set of concrete actions aimed at addressing the situation of migrants and refugees in particular inside Libya.
On her part, El Fadil told the joint press conference that "when it comes to the issues of the traffickers, tracing these networks and the criminals, and bringing them to justice, we are using our continental cooperation between the two continents."
And we are using our own AU institutions that are already engaged on this issue. We will work very closely to make sure that these criminals will be brought to justice," she added. (end)
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