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All the evacuees were granted asylum-seeker status while assessing their refugee claims by UNHCR. They have also been given right to access to education, healthcare, work, freedom of movement and other fundamental privileges.
To help them integrate into local communities, they have been offered language and vocational training classes. Even though the facilities are believed to be struggling with overcrowding and the slow pace of resettlement, refugees will be guided in areas including resettlement and voluntary return to their various countries.
“Further evacuations are expected to be held in the coming weeks and months as UNHCR continues to step up efforts to get vulnerable refugees in Libya out of harm’s way and to safety. Faster and increased evacuations and initiatives such as the Emergency Transit
Mechanism, are urgently needed” said the UNHCR Spokesperson. The U.N Refugee Agency also urges the international community to support Rwanda’s gesture of solidarity with refugees by providing financial support and resettlement places. The urgency to evacuate migrants from Libya started in July when more than 40 people were killed in an air strike on a migrant detention centrein the town of Tajoura. The UN estimates that there are about 42,000 refugees currently in Libya. Many of them come from Africa and Middle-East countries aspiring to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Most of them are in difficult situations and some found themselves in critical positions between instability, marauders and traffickers. A great number of them are unfortunately held in captivity for long time while some are exposed to several kinds of vulnerability within major cities and town.
According to UNHCR, the agency is using flexible funding for the Rwanda Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM), which was not budgeted at the beginning of the year and is actively soliciting additional donor support. While the influx of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers to Europe has become a political impediment, countries in East Africa are often praised for their openness and solidarity to those displaced by conflict in the region.
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