Nigeria repatriates 326 'stranded' nationals from Libya

A total of 326 "stranded" Nigerians, including about a dozen children, were brought back home from Libya this weekend, an official statement said on Sunday. They arrived in Lagos international airport in two batches. Airport officials said that some of them had been tortured or imprisoned by the new government in Tripoli before they were evacuated. "At the weekend, 326 stranded Nigerians were evacuated to the country from Libya through the effort of International Office for Migration (IOM), a United Nations body," the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said. It is unclear if they were deported. Libyan authorities have in the past years expelled thousands of Nigerian illegal immigrants and those with criminal records.