Hundreds of thousands of migrants waiting in Libya

Published March 25, 2016 · Updated September 24, 2022

A girl holds a placard at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border.

AFP, Paris :French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday that some 800,000 migrants are in Libya hoping to cross to Europe.Le Drian said in an interview with Europe 1 radio that “hundreds of thousands” of migrants were in Libya, having fled conflict and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere, adding that the figure of 800,000 was “about right”.In 2015 more than a million migrants entered Europe, about half of them Syrians, with Germany shouldering most of the burden. More than 100,000 crossed the Mediterranean Sea in the first two months of 2016 alone, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).And after a controversial deal between Turkey and the European Union came into force this week, aiming to cut off the migrant sea route between Turkey and Greece, there are fears more will attempt the even more dangerous Libya-Italy route.The biggest movement of people on the continent since World War II has strained ties in Europe, with several nations limiting the number of migrants they allow in.This has left thousands blocked in dire conditions, notably at the Greek border crossing of Idomeni.Meanwhile, the United States repatriated 58 Cubans rescued from rafts while trying to reach American shores in dangerous waters, the US Coast Guard said.They were part of a wave of migration from the communist island nation since the beginning of its rapprochement with the United States.A Coast Guard patrol boat took the rafters to the Cuban village of Bahia de Cabanas, the agency said in a statement.They were rescued in the Straits of Florida — the 90 miles (150 kilometers) of water separating the US state from Cuba — from seven different boats over the last week.The Coast Guard has seen a spike in the number of Cubans arriving in the United States by land and sea since Washington and Havana announced they would begin normalizing relations in December 2014.Cuban migrants who reach the United States are put on a fast track to residency and citizenship under a Cold War-era policy that many fear will be shelved as the two countries normalize relations.