A group of 161 Nigerians have been restituted from Libya as part of a voluntary UN-supported scheme.
They arrived on a flight from Tripoli at the airport in the main city of Lagos on Monday, it says.
They included 75 women and six children who had been held in detention facilities in Libya.
Libya’s interior minister was quoted as saying that 102 of those repatriated had been stopped at the border between Libya and Tunisia.
Libya is a major but deadly migrant route for Africans seeking to illegally cross over to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.
An official at Nigeria’s embassy in Libya confirmed to Newsmen that the migrants had not been forced to return home.
“We spoke to them and explained that migration is not bad, but you have to follow due process,” embassy adviser Samuel Okeri is quoted as saying.
As they are going back willingly. They are not sad but happy to go back to Nigeria. There is no place like home.”
Source: BBC NEWS
