The Gambia government is set to use a diplomatic channel with the Libyan authorities to call for the release of 400 Gambian migrants held in prisons in the war torn country.

“The Government will dispatch a delegation to Tripoli, 6th November 2022 on a Consular Mission and to also negotiate with Libyan authorities the release and subsequent repatriation of 400 Gambians currently in prisons and detention centres,” the ministry of foreign affairs told Gambiana.

Meanwhile, the ministry also said in a statement that they have already secured exit visas for 165 stranded Gambian migrants in Libya.

However, there are 52 more stranded Gambian migrants who have no place to sleep in Libya. 

But the ministry has told Gambiana that they are in talks with the International Organisation for Migration office in Libya to provide accommodation to the migrants.

The Association of Gambian Migrants in Libya on Wednesday released a disturbing video of Gambian migrants in terrible conditions pleading to be repatriated home. 

Dozens of the migrants who could be seen in the video sleeping at a dumping site claimed that their landlord evicted them from their house. 

“He doesn’t even want us to sleep around his home. And anywhere we go, the Libyans will use guns to drive us away. We have no food and no water. Some of us are very sick and couldn’t even walk,” one of the migrants said in the video.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba