162 return home from strife-torn Libya

A group of 162 Bangladeshis returned home from war-torn Libya yesterday under a voluntary repatriation programme coordinated by the Bangladesh government and International Organisation for Migration.

A chartered flight carrying them touched down at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the morning, said an IOM official in Dhaka.

Among the returnees could be trafficking victims and migrants who failed to cross the Mediterranean into Europe illegally. Seven of them were physically ill, the official told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

On March 3, another group of 114 Bangladeshis returned home from Libya, known as a transit country to Europe for illegal migration.