They wanted better living, greener pasture ::: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped 172 Nigerian migrants, including 6 women, to return home to Nigeria from Libya on Friday, March 11 2016. One hundred forty-two had spent months in immigration detention centers. The repatriation done in close cooperation with Libyan authorities, Nigeria’s Embassy in Tripoli and the IOM office in Nigeria – was on board a charter flight departing Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport and arriving in Lagos on the 12th of March 2016. Almost all the migrants traveling on this charter were detained as they were trying to cross to Europe. Despite ending their journey of hope inside detention centres, these migrants consider themselves lucky to have escaped death on the Mediterranean, which this year has taken the lives of 97 migrants and refugees on the route linking Libya to Italy.
